Reincarnation of a Water Lily
by Silent Strikes
Summary: If you got a second chance at life, what would you do? - What happens when an ordinary girl wakes up to find herself stuck in the body of a baby in the world of Naruto? - Life as a ninja. OC.
1. Prologue: The Beginning

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_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do ?_

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- Prologue -

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Re°in°car°na°tion - (1) The rebirth of a soul in a new body. (2) A person or animal in whom a particular soul is believed to have been reborn.

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"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Seneca

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I don't really know where to start.

I still have no idea how the hell I ended up in a situation like this.

You know when you wish you could go back in time? To fix your mistakes? Well I was offered the chance to start all over again. In a different time, in a different universe.

I know the idea seems pretty far fetched, but I've come to a point in life where nothing surprises me anymore.

Starting over might seem like a good idea. At the time, it was. But when you're 'starting over' in a world where they groom you to become a perfect ninja, things don't really go the way you plan. At all.

Because in a world of lies, and hate, and betrayal, the only thing you end up having that you can count on is yourself.

Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty cliché and all. But it's true.

When I think about it, it's crazy how I was once a nice, proper college student studying biochemistry. Back then, I was afraid to dissect a frog. Now, I'm able to kill actual people without thinking twice about it.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish that I never had the chance to be 'reborn' or whatever in this world. It would have saved me from the deceit and the pain.

But I've chosen my path now, and I'll continue to walk down that road. I know what has to be done, and I'll die if I have to in order to accomplish my goals. I'm made my choice. I don't think I'll regret it. And even if I did, my actions would be irreversible. Nothing would be the same anymore.

I've gone into the shadows, and there is no going back.

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A/N: Story will follow canon, though there will be changes in the future.

This story has a very sloww start, so if you're not into that then don't read or feel free to skip.

This is an OC- centric story. I cannot garantee that you'll like my character.

I am pretty satisfied with my story so far. If you find any mistakes or have any questions feel free to review! (:

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Disclaimer:

The only thing that I want to claim a right over is Ren, because she's lovely and I love her. Oh, and she's my OC.


	2. Chapter 1: Awakening

_If you got a second chance at life, what would do?_

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- Chapter One: Awakening -

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"One step must start each journey."

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I remember discomfort.

Blackness.

Confusion.

Suddenly, I saw light.

How long was I in the darkness? Days? Weeks? Months? Years?

It was impossible to tell. You had no way to keep track of time in the darkness.

Everything now was blurry and _bright_.

I was unaccustomed to the brightness, and it stung my eyes. As my eyes slowly adjusted, I blinked rapidly, trying to make the discomfort disappear.

People were, at least I think, washing me. They were huge. At first I thought they were giants and I was just having a really disturbing dream about giants cleaning me, but then I caught a glimpse of my hand.

I hiccuped in horror.

… Since when did I have small, pudgy hands?

I tried to ask the giants, but my voice box wasn't developed enough to form words yet and I only managed a gurgle.

A _gurgle_?

I was now wrapped up in a warm blanket and handed over to woman with bright red hair and green eyes. She had symmetrical facial features and looked at me adoringly. She was pretty, even though she looked obviously worn out.

I looked around to confirm my fear.

I was in a hospital.

Shit.

Holy shit.

I was a newborn baby.

Then I did the only rational thing I knew how to do and cried.

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I later found out that my mother was a 'civilian', officially speaking. She was good at handling weapons and was decent enough at taijutsu, seeing her family was one of the three main working blacksmiths that supplied Konoha with weapons, but wasn't a registered ninja.

Konoha...

It was one of the first words I had recognized. The one word that made my mind even more confused then it already was.

Konoha?

Konoha was a fictional place in a a popular manga series, Naruto... Maybe it also meant other things, but to my knowledge, Konoha was a place. A _fictional_ place in a _fictional_ book.

I also recognized some basic words of Japanese.

When I first heard people talking, I had been too confused to even realize it was Japanese. When I had gotten over the initial shock that I was indeed stuck in the body of a helpless, fat baby, I began to observe my surroundings carefully.

I silently thanked the heavens that I had taken two years of Japanese in high school. Granted, I didn't remember much, but even the little knowledge I had was a great deal of help. I guess it was a good thing I had been born as a baby because I had the excuse of not knowing how to speak.

Things didn't make any sense.

I was a baby.

A Japanese baby.

That itself was weird.

I wondered how I was connected to this body.

Was I a spirit stuck in a body, cursed to watch the life of this baby through their eyes?

Later, I came to conclusions that this body was indeed now _my_ body: when I raised my hand I saw the small, pudgy fingers move upwards.

Or maybe I was controlling the body of someone else without realizing it? I didn't seem very likely, but too many weird and seemingly impossible things had happened to me to cast that option aside.

In my 'old' life, I was American. And not a baby at that.

It was extremely difficult to wrap my head around the idea that I was now a _baby_. As improbable as it was, I accepted it. Although, it was a major setback, good things could maybe come out of this experience.

I was now forced to restart my life all over again. Although this might seem to some as troublesome, it did have some advantages; I was smarter and more experienced, therefore I didn't have to repeat the same mistakes my former self had made.

There weren't, however, many things a baby could do. I slept a lot and was fed regularly, my body fragile and adjusting to its surroundings. I didn't have enough strength or coordination to do more than than eat and sleep anyway. Forget running- I couldn't even crawl.

It did sort of annoy me... I had been living a good enough life before and the prospect of re-doing _everything _again bothered me. Had all of my work and effort in my 'past' life been for nothing? Agh. This thought frustrated me.

I also missed my family and friends a lot as well. The only human contact I was limited to were with my new family (that I hardly knew anything about). I couldn't hold any conversations anymore. I could hardly understand what these people were _saying_.

Also, everything seemed so huge! The 'giants', as I had named them, talked very loudly and sometimes I could hear their footsteps way before I could see them.

I learned that my name was now Ren. My 'mom' (I still had difficulty calling her that) called me Ren-chan all the time, so it wasn't hard to guess.

"You're so adorable Ren-chan!" and "Look at Ren-chan!" were some expressions she overused daily.

She was rather chatty and energetic. She rarely left my side, and if she did it was no longer than two minutes. The red hair and green eyes struck me as very odd for a Japanese woman, but it strangely suited her nicely.

My 'dad' was quieter than my mother. He was tall and looked strong and fierce. He had strong facial features that contrasted with my mother's. Brown hair and eyes- he looked rather plain, but his smile changed all that. When he smiled, everything seemed so much brighter. He didn't really talk that much but every time he gazed into my eyes there was that wonderful look of pride that clouded his eyes.

There weren't many things I was sure of anymore, but I decided in those moments that I liked that look.

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I was now several months old, fully aware that I was part of the ninja world.

I could only suppose, but there were many signs that indicated I was in the Naruto world.

I spotted weapons laying around the house all the time (I sometimes wondered why- wasn't that a safety hazard?). They weren't normal looking weapons either. No guns or anything fancy like that.

There were these sort of metal knives with holes at the ends. Sometimes I spotted metal rings that had pointy ends all around. I later learned they were named 'kunai' and 'shuriken'.

There were subtle signs as well. Dad moved too silently to be considered human, in all honesty. At times I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because he disappeared and reappeared like magic.

The biggest clue I suppose, would have to have been the headband my Dad wore around his forehead. I hadn't registered its meaning until much later, but when I did, everything seemed to make a bit more sense.

He was wearing (what I later learned was called a 'forehead protector') a navy blue headband tied around his forehead with a metallic plate facing the front. On it, it had engraved a simple design of a leaf.

Leaf.

As in, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Another twist to my crazy dream.

A good twist. This certainly opened more doors and possibilities. More complications and questions as well, but I ignored that for now.

I had other problems to deal with for the moment.

Communication for one.

I didn't have profound knowledge of Japanese or its culture. In high school they taught you how to write your name and how to say hello. Now that I lived in the Japan (in the feudal era!), there were many things I wanted to know, to learn, to discover.

When the only thing you hear all day is Japanese, you're bound to pick something up by the end of the day.

Of course, there were still some words and things I didn't understand but I understand basic sentences and I was content for that for now.

I had my mom read me stories a lot. I wanted to be able to read Japanese too. It had bothered me a great deal that I couldn't read without the help of someone else.

Reading was hard, and I only truly became interested in learning that until much later.

I had to learn what words corresponded to which symbols. It was complicated, but I was determined to make sense out of things.

My days as a baby weren't amazing. As I have already stated, there aren't many things to do.

Between sleeping and eating, I settled for observing.

I observed quietly (for the most part).

Observing taught me many things.

I learned that Mom was a great cook.

Surprisingly, the food in Konoha was pretty much the same I ate in my old life. I would have expected that a couple centuries ago people ate like savages. Kind of like the middle ages or vikings. Then I remembered watching Chouji eating ribs and chips in the Naruto anime.

I wasn't allowed to eat ribs yet, but the food I was allowed to eat was pretty darn good.

I learned that my taste in food wasn't the same anymore. Some things I used to refuse to eat in my old life, I now happily swallowed.

The fact that Mom was a good cook put aside, I was growing rather fond of my new family.

It didn't surprise me, seeing that as a baby I needed to rely on someone and Dad and Mom were those people. I mean come on, how can you not learn to love people who wipe your butt and feed you everyday?

I also learned I had an older brother.

He was six years my senior and had recently enrolled at the Academy, the school that trained kids to become ninjas.

I wasn't used to having any siblings but I immediately took a liking to my new relative.

Tadashi (I learned was his name) was constantly cheerful and took care of me all the time. He read me stories and played games with me. He rambled a lot but I listened anyway. Half of the things weren't that interesting (like what he ate) but sometimes he talked about what he learned at the Academy, which interested me a lot.

I had never paid attention before, but apparently the Academy wasn't just a ninja school where you learned cool new also learned math, science and the other essential courses that were taught at 'civilian schools'. A smart shinobi was always better than a dumb one.

It was only his first year at the Academy and they hadn't taught them any jutsus yet, since at his age students still hadn't fully developed their chakra reserves to an efficient amount.

From what I could remember, if you were too low on chakra you could pass out and even sometimes die. It was understandable that the instructors at the Academy waited until the students were at least seven (or even older) to teach them a jutsu, even if it was a low level one.

I sometimes wondered when exactly I had been born. I knew I was born July 11th- I had a certificate to prove it. But _when_? Where was I exactly on the 'Naruto timeline'? We weren't at war, that I could tell, because if we had been, my father would have been sent out on platoons to go fight. He spent far too much time at home for that scenario to make any sense.

Was I born before Naruto? Had the the Naruto arcs already finish? Was Naruto currently alive? Was he dead? So many questions... that I couldn't, under no circumstance, ask my parents.

The timeline problem didn't bother me too much, but it would have been nice to know.

There were many, many things I didn't know, that I didn't understand.

Like chakra, for example.

They had explained it in the series. Everyone had chakra. Chakra was used for jutsus. In all honesty, I didn't know much more than that.

Back in my old world, chakra didn't exist. At all. Which later (much later) would become an advantage for me. Chakra was something I had never been around or used to.

Chakra was a funny thing. I don't think I could perfectly explain it to you if you don't already know what it is or if you haven't ever been exposed to it.

Chakra has its own circulatory system, like blood. Since I had never had chakra in my body before, I could easily _feel_ it. It was odd and felt weird.

It was fluid and warm and ran all over my body. And when I say fluid, I don't mean like water. It's really hard to explain; there aren't any words I know of to describe how it feels accurately. It was not tangible; it was like describing an abstract painting.

The chakras I was most familiar with were my family's. They were also the ones I had the best 'connection' with.

My mom's chakra felt bright and fierce, reminding me, strangely of an apple. Which didn't make any sense seeing as they had nothing in common, but that's what it felt like if I had to compare the chakra to an object.

Dad's chakra felt … determined and loyal, but if I had to find a noun to describe it... wood. Cedar wood.

My brother's chakra felt sunny and calm, like a pebble in a lake.

There were times when I caught glances at _inside_ their chakra. That also was a difficult thing to explain.

If I had to put it simply, I would say I could feel how their chakra felt emotionally. Anger was an emotion I picked up best. But even that description wasn't really accurate; it didn't even scratch the surface of how it felt.

Nobody in the Naruto series described other people's chakra like I did.

Maybe I really was a whack child.

When I turned two, my family had celebrated and given me a book.

It was a children's book about a ninja who saved its village by killing the villain. The sentences were relatively simple and coherent and really not a problem to read. It was the longest story book I had read so far though, and it made me want to read more.

My older brother, Tadashi, gave me a block cube that sort of resembled a rubix cube, a game from my former life. You had to move the cubes in the right place to, in this case, form a picture on each side.

I decided that two was a good age to start speaking. I had said a few words here and there, but now I felt brave enough to try a full sentence.

I think the first word I spoke was 'family'. I had intended to struggle with the word on purpose to appear more like a normal baby. In the end the struggling had come naturally.

After that, I spoke deliberately slowly, careful not to say too much or talk too fast. Sometimes I stuttered or took longer to form certain words.

If I spoke normally it definitely was sure to raise suspicions. I would then be labeled 'prodigy' and my life would go downhill from there. Though I think my parents suspected me of being some sort of genius in the making regardless of what I did to hide my abilities.

Being a shinobi was dangerous, that much I knew.

In my old life, I had stayed away from anything close to dangerous. You know, things like not going past the driving limit.

I blame it on my former mother; that woman was so careful it was sometimes scary. Everything she did was calculated. She thought five steps ahead and thought about every outcome to every situation. A habit that had worn off on me.

Sure the idea of being a ninja was cool. You got to learn jutsus and how to kick ass. But the idea of being trained to kill sort of repulsed me.

A twelve year old killing dozens of people in one night- I shuddered involuntarily.

My thoughts wandered to Itachi... I certainly didn't want to end up like him, cursed to live his life in solitude by his own village.

Being a ninja meant sacrifice. I didn't think I was up for that. I was much too selfish.

It meant battle- a concept that seemed laughable at best. I had never held any sort of weapon! Unless you count kitchen knives as a weapon.

Being a ninja was fucking dangerous. It meant risking your life for someone, for a mission, for an object... One minute- even a second- of hesitation on your part meant -bam!- instant death. You didn't have three lives like in a video game. You died once and it was all over.

It scared the living lights out of me even if this was just a fictional world.

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I often wished that my family had a more extensive library.

My mom was a civilian so most of the bookshelf was filled with gardening and cook books, an encyclopedia, and a few badly written romance fictions. I had read all of them but they hadn't really taught me anything, except for perhaps the encyclopedia.

My family hardly read: my dad didn't really have time to, what with missions and two kids. My brother couldn't care less about reading and mainly focused on long range weapon attacks with my mom in the yard or playing with his friends. He wasn't allowed to use real kunai or shuriken yet since they were too dangerous for a kid to handle, so he used the carved wooden ones. Tadashi and Mom practiced his aim in the backyard a couple times per week which I observed safe from the sidelines curiously.

I would compare what my Mom did and then my brother, inferring what the correct placement of the arms and legs were.

Sometimes, Mom would bring me along with her when she went out. We often went for walks near the lake or to go to the groceries. Occasionally, she would bring me when she picked up Tadashi from school.

When I first went there, it had been odd seeing so many students. The Academy I was used to was based off memory of what I had read or watched on TV back in my old life.

It was centered around the rookie 9 so I had always assumed there was only one class per year of students.

Yeah, well no. It seemed there were three classes of 18 students per year (more or less). It surprised me... but then again it didn't.

To a ninja village, being a shinobi was an honor.

Kids, even if they knew they had a high chance of dying, enrolled to become a ninja just to serve that honor. It was also partially because most of them thought themselves skilled enough to not die during a battle. They would become ninja to become acknowledged and to prove themselves.

It was kind of like brain-washing.

Back in my former life, society and media convinced us that being rich, skinny, and pretty were the only things you needed to become successful and accepted by others. If you were ugly, fat, and poor, people gave you looks. That's why you strove to become successful, spent tons of money of plastic surgery to change your appearance, or went on a diet. It was pretty much the same concept here.

In the end, the brain-washing affected me also. How could it not? My father was someone I looked up to and my brother encouraged my curiosity of the ninja world. That's when I seriously started to consider becoming a ninja.

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A/N:

This story will follow the original Naruto plot.


	3. Chapter 2: The Decision

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_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

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- Chapter Two: The Decision -

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"Before beginning prepare carefully." -Cicero

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I was four now.

By this time I could successfully focus my chakra into my hands and feet.

I could manage to keep it focused evenly anywhere in my body but not for more than a minute (but even that was a challenge). After a while my control would start to slip; it was sort of like a living fish squirming out of your grip. I worked on maintaining it as long as I could, but it drained me out and forced me into taking long naps if I held it for too long.

I could also send my chakra out of my body. It was sort of like stretching your chakra as far as it would go- like an elastic. It was an odd feeling so I didn't try that often.

I learned about chakra threads through one of the books my brother let me read. Chakra threads required precision, concentration, control. The basic idea was to form threads with the chakra you sent out of your body.

As a general rule, controlling chakra was hard. It took a lot of concentration (at least at my age). After a while, it came naturally, but threads were complicated to create because you needed to expand your chakra out of your body and form it, instead of leaving it in a glob. Chakra threads were supposed to be very, very, very small in diameter, almost invisible. The smaller, the better.

The best I could do was form a cylinder but even that was as big as a water bottle. It was crazy to think Sasori could control over one hundred puppets with his threads. Imagine all the threads he had to use!

Chakra threads were cool in concept though, and even if I couldn't master it at least I would have the basics down. It was also good chakra practice and provided something to do during the day.

There weren't many things I was allowed to do. My childhood days were boring, truth be told.

I didn't go out often.

My parents told me that the hospital I was born at had diagnosed me as 'allergic' to chakra after running some basic tests. For that reason, they kept me away from large crowds and forbid Tadashi to practice jutsus at home.

I was pretty lonely during the day. Dad was working, Tadashi was at school. I loved my Mom, but sometimes I wanted to interact with other people.

But maybe my limited contact with others was a good thing. Children my age wouldn't be on the same mental level as me and so I doubted they would entertain me much.

Sometimes I envied them for being so simple minded.

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One day, I went to the park with my mom.

There were many parks in Konoha, that I knew after examining a map. I had passed in front of many, but Mom had never brought me to play in one.

The park was basically like the ones in my old life. This puzzled me a great deal because Naruto was suppposed to be set in the feudal era right? They didn't have plastic slides in the feudal era.

I took hesistant steps toward the other children.

They looked so hyper and carefree. They probably weren't overthinking as much as I was. Lucky them.

And you won't believe it, but I _saw_ Nara, Shikamaru.

I halted unexpectedly, causing my mom to look at me worriedly.

"What's wrong Ren-chan? Are you not feeling well?" She asked panicked, thinking my 'allergies' were picking up.

I smiled reassuringly at her and turned away, hesitating whether or not to approach Shikamaru.

He _looked_ like Shikamaru. He had that signature pineapple shaped hairdo and bored expression, but those traits probably ran in his family so the guy might as well be his grandfather. Or grandson. Or cousin.

"Who's that boy under the tree?" I asked my mom, concluding that she would know.

Mom liked to gossip and had good connections. Surely she would know.

"Oh. _Oh_!" She looked at me and smiled somewhat wickedly.

I could almost see her dancing internally. Variations of 'My little girl is growing up!' were probably running over in her head.

Bleh.

"_Mom_!" I complained, embarrassed. "It's just that I think I've seen him before."

"Well I've certainly seen him around before. He's Yoshino's son. Your age, I think."

That was enough information.

If my memories were correct, Shikamaru's mother was named Yoshino .. but then again I could be wrong or it might just be a coincidence. The only way to make sure was to ask him.

"Do you want to go over and say hi?" asked Mom.

I shot Shikamaru a wary glance. As much as it was exciting to actually see a Naruto character in real life, approaching him would be weird.

It might even change the story line.

Drastically.

Though I didn't exactly see how, I knew that one little action could change the world- at least that's what they taught us during ecology classes- but I didn't know if it really applied here.

I didn't remember any 'Tanaka, Ren' in the series. If another character had been added, there was bound to be other changes to the series as well. I just had to remember that the series I knew back in my old world might not be the same at all here.

Naruto might turn out to be the bad guy, Sasuke the hero, Tsunade the evil kid snatching missing-nin... Many things could be different.

Bah.

I decided it was for the best if I didn't talk to him. I mean if he-

Wait a second.

If that guy really was Shikamaru then that meant that I was in the Naruto timeline!

I looked at over at him closely. He did look around my age, maybe older.

I sighed. I really didn't want to mess with the story. It was easier that way. Talking to him was a bad idea, it would probably mean -

"Hey Yoshino! This is my daughter Ren!" My mother said, pushing me forward to face a dark haired woman that had stern looking features.

My eyes widened.

_What was my mother thinking_?

What a crazy lady! I contemplated the idea of running away... That _would_ be typical four year old reaction... Maybe I could even get away with it...

As if reading my mind, Mom placed a hand on my shoulder, firmly keeping it there, preventing me from escaping.

"Hello," said the woman looking at me smiling.

She was rather plain, compared to my mother, but was pretty enough.

"Hello," I said timidly. I wasn't used to talking to strangers.

"You're very pretty.. How old are you?"

"I'm four," I said shyly.

"Four? I have a son who's the same age... Where is he?" She looked around. "Shika! Come here!"

I widened my eyes briefly at the sudden change of tone.

One second she had been all sweet and polite the next.. she was yelling her head off... _Scary_, she was.

I heard a groan of protest and noticed _the_ Shikamaru making his way over to me, hands in his pockets. I blinked several times to make absolutely sure I wasn't just seeing things.

Well at least now I knew for sure he was a Shikamaru. Maybe not the one-

"What?" he frowned, not even noticing me.

Well he probably had noticed me -purple hair wasn't hard to miss- but didn't show any signs of recognition.

"Look I found you a friend. Her name is Tanaka, Ren," Yoshino smiled, delighted.

I tried not to frown. This lady made it sound like she was trying to force me upon him.

I silently thanked my luck that I had a somewhat normal mother.

Actually come to think of it, I had it pretty good. I was a daughter of a Konoha jounin. I could of ended up an orphan in Oto during the war.

"Ren this is Shikamaru. Go off and play now while we mothers talk about adult things," she said, pushing us toward an empty sand box.

We both frowned. She really was crazy.

I sat down, uncomfortable and feeling awkward. He followed suit.

We stayed in silence for a while before I decided that since I was in this position, I might as well talk to him.

"Do you like the clouds?" I asked, trying to find something he would like to talk about.

What did four year olds talk to each other about? Games? Books? The weather? I was confused on how to approach him.

"Yeah," he said, finally looking at me.

He was really different from how he looked like in the Shippuden series. Here he still looked young and had that cute innocence that all children had at that age.

"Oh, that's nice," I looked up at the sky which was slightly clouded. "I watch the clouds sometimes because I like to see the different shapes they make. Did you know that clouds look different depending on the person who looks at it?"

I looked slightly to my right.

"You see that cloud?" I pointed. "To me it looks like a dragon..."

"Looks more like a dog."

We smiled at each other. He had a funny sort of half-smile. I giggled.

Giggling was something that had become an annoying habit. In my old life, I hated all that girlish giggling but for some reason this body just couldn't laugh properly. Instead, it chose to _giggle_. I tried correcting my laugh but it always went back to the soft giggle. Annoying thing, really.

We sat in silence looking at the clouds. I was absentmindedly playing with the sand in one hand when he started talking again.

"We'll probably be seeing a lot of each other from now on... my Mom will make sure of it..."

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked, smirking a little.

".. No," he said and I sensed no dishonest chakra signals.

"Good. I would much rather be your friends then them..." I said honestly, looking pointedly at the screaming children who were playing what I assumed was tag.

"They do seem troublesome," he said not even looking at them.

"Hm..." I smiled. "We'll probably be better off away from them."

He nodded, agreeing.

And that was how I made my first friend.

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The walk home was a troubling one- I was internally debating on what to do.

Now that I was 'friends' with Shikamaru, would it be safe to approach the other Rookie 9? That was sure to cause problems. Maybe I should just stay away from the whole lot entirely...

Then again...

If I knew what was going to happen... Could I change the future? Could I prevent war from happening? If my calculations were correct, the war would start when I was around 15/16, which meant I had only twelve years until then.

Twelve years! Shit. That was _not_ a lot of time.

If I wanted to make it through the war I would have to be stronger. The only way I could truly get strong in order to protect my family and myself was to become a ninja.

But I didn't want to become a ninja.

Ninja meant disaster.

But if I stayed a mere civilian, when the war would come along, I wouldn't be able to protect myself, let alone my family. Therefore I had a better chance at survival if I became a ninja. But on the other hand, being a ninja meant that I had to expect death at every turn.

I pondered over my choices and weighed the pros and the cons for the rest of the evening. I had to come up with a decision quickly so that if I did choose to go down the road of a shinobi, I would have more time to prepare. After all, twelve years was nothing.

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At dinner that night I decided that I would announce my decision. While I chewed on the barbecued pork ribs I contemplated on how I would break the news... How would my parents react? After all, two of my family members were ninja. Would they view me differently?

"I've made a pretty important decision today," I said during one of those rare moments of silence where my brother chewed with his mouth _closed_.

They looked at me expectantly. Part of me wanted to just stare at my plate while answering but then it wouldn't look like I was determined. If I wasn't sure of my answer they might reconsider letting me go through with this.

"I've decided that I will become a skilled shinobi like my father," I declared staring straight into my father's eyes.

His approval I would need the most. Tadashi I was sure would encourage me to do so, and my mom would support me no matter what I did.

I noticed a flicker of surprise in his eyes. It was brief, but it was there.

"Great! Then we can walk to school together!" beamed my brother.

It was my brother's last year at the Academy. If all went well and he graduated, that was. I was sure he would do fine.

I noticed my mom glance at my dad, unsure. I gulped.

It was an important decision.

Honestly, I still didn't know if this was the best choice, but after a careful internal debate I had made my decision. I think I would have regretted not choosing to become a ninja. The more I read and learned about ninjas, the more I considered becoming one.

"But you see dear," started Mom cautiously. "When you were younger you showed signs of being allergic to chakra. If you become a ninja it would be pretty difficult for you. Harder than the others. If a genjutsu was performed on you, it might be fatal. You could try to specialize in taijutsu but you would have to try work really, really-"

"Don't worry I'll do just fine," I said confidently. Or at least tried to sound confident, because what I was feeling was an entirely different manner.

"But sweetheart I don't think-"

"If you let me go to the Academy I'll promise that I'll be in the top 10 percentile."

That was a little far fetched but hey, but if it got them to let me go...

And anyways, I'm pretty sure I would get all the written stuff right. My chakra control was pretty good too, although I had no idea if it was considered normal or not for children my age- I hadn't had the chance to compare myself with anyone yet. I considered searching out Sasuke to fight him, but that idea was quickly discarded. The only thing that truly worried me was taijutsu.

Taijutsu was in other words, hand to hand combat. I had never done karate or wrestling or any kind of stuff like that back in my old life. The only sports I was particularly active in before being reincarnated into this body, were gymnastics and figure skating- which I doubted would help me. All the flexibility and strength I had acquired in my old body wasn't carried over to my new body so that meant I had to re-learn everything.

"Top... ten percentile?" breathed my mom, disbelieving.

Whenever I made a promise I kept it. Which is probably why she chose to interpret my offer seriously.

Even Tadashi couldn't score in the top 10 percentile. I blame that for his lack of studying. He was a big slacker when it came to school work.

"Yup," I smiled. I noticed my father's blank face and tried to reason again.

"The three requirements that are needed to enroll in the Academy are," I recited. "One; to love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity. Two; to have a mind that will not yield and three; to be healthy in mind and body."

Tadashi looked somewhat surprised.

"I fit in all those categories! And anyways, even if I'm completely horrible at all the ninja stuff I would still learn everything that would be taught at the civilian school," I reasoned.

There wasn't a civilian school in Konoha so I would either have to be homeschooled or be sent to the nearest town. The Academy really was the best choice.

"All right then. Let's see if you can keep that promise!" grinned my dad.

I beamed back, proud. Then it was official.

I was going to become a ninja.

.

* * *

.

As it turned out, the official age to enter the Academy was 6, but a child could enroll earlier if they showed promise. After all Hatake Kakashi had _graduated_ the Academy at the age of _5_. The thought was so absurd. But at the time they were in need to men to send out to war, and they were getting desperate so they graduated about everybody earlier.

In any case, as much as I wanted to become stronger, no way did I want to graduate at the age of 5. Or 6. Or 7. When you graduated early on, you were labeled as a 'prodigy'.

If you were immediately labeled as a so called genius, problems would ensue. You would be targeted by enemy ninja or other hidden villages. After all, you always wanted to take out the strong opponents. Prodigies would become powerful enemies later. It was easiest to get rid of them early on.

.

A couple weeks later, I told my dad while we were walking back from the lake that I wanted to enroll at the Academy when I turned 6, like everybody else.

"Why do you want to start late? I thought you wanted to become a ninja... Are you having second doubts?" he said, but I recognized the teasing in his voice.

"Of course not. I want to become strong. I've decided that I want to study and train more before enrolling."

"Isn't studying and training what you do at the Academy?" he asked, surprised.

"Of course but it won't be the same." I paused. "I won't have that much time to practice and research that much if I go to the Academy. I'll have to practice and learn what they _teach_ me."

"Hm... So what exactly do you want to research and practice so badly?"

.

I had decided the week before that I wanted to learn as much as I could about the founding fathers of Konoha, chakra and the Sage of the Sixth Paths.

Back in my old life, we didn't have that much information about the Sage of the Sixth Paths. I knew the story, but I wanted the original one.

Those weren't the only thing I wanted to research. I didn't know much about this new world, and the more I learned, the better.

I also wanted to practice my taijutsu since I didn't know how well I would fare in that domain.

Ninjutsu was a bit risky to try at my age so I was just going to stick to learning how to mold and control chakra. After all, perfect control was part of the fundamentals. Even some jounins couldn't control chakra perfectly. I figured that maybe if I started now, it would help me later.

.

"Well first I was thinking of going to the Konoha Archive Library and learning about the founding fathers of Konoha," I started, carefully glancing at my dad from the corner of his eyes. I decided not to mention the Sage of the Sixth Paths. Most people considered him a myth anyway. "And I essentially want to practice and train my taijutsu skills, seeing I have none and it would be the most harmless one to learn."

"Seems like you got it all planned out."

"Not really."

What a lie. I bet he knew it too.

In reality, I had written and planned out my training schedule for the next two years. I had written it in Japanese, replacing the words I didn't know how to spell in English.

I wondered if there were people who talked English around here... Doubted it.

But then again that could be used to my advantage since I could write out all my notes and planning in English and no one would be able to figure it out. Well I suppose the people on the cryptanalysis squad could, but it would take time and even then they wouldn't be able to understand all of it.

The cryptanalysis squad intrigued me to be honest. I would have to look into that later.

I also wanted to learn more about chakra.

Chakra was very complicated. Maybe complicated was the wrong word to use. Just intricate.

I knew there were different types of chakras but how exactly did it work? How exactly was one able to perform a jutsu with no hand seals? How were they able to reduce the amount of hand seals considerably? I remembered Haku, who was able to use only one hand to perform a jutsu. How did all that work?

I reasoned that once I had a firm grasp of what I would be working with, that it would be easier to master.

The thing about being in a fictional world was that there were so many new things to learn about. I wanted to understand it all.

.

* * *

.

The next few weeks I spent a lot of time in the library since there weren't really any books I could put to use at home.

I did read through my brother's history and math textbooks they had him use in school. Math had always been my strong suit back in my old life so the math textbook was pretty useless. The history book however, filled me in about the last three great shinobi wars.

It was important to learn all the disputes between the different countries because memories of past conflicts ran deep. If you didn't even know why you were fighting or why you hated a certain country, you just looked ignorant. And if there was one thing I hated, it was the absence of knowledge.

While I was in the library I looked up any stories related to the Sage of the Sixth Paths, which meant extensive reading on each of the tailed beasts. There was only one scroll regarding the Sage himself, and it was tattered and old. I found a couple books where the tailed beasts were mentioned, but that was about it.

_One tail- Shukaku_

_Two tails- Matatabi_

_Three tails- Isobu_

_Four tails- Son Goku_

_Five tails- Kokuo_

_Six tails- Saiken_

_Seven tails- Chomei_

_Eight tails- Gyuki_

_Nine tails- Kurama_

_The Sage of the Sixth Paths- the creator of all things._

_._

The more I read about the so called Sage, the more terrifying he became. He was extremely, frighteningly powerful.

The scariest part was that a guy like him had actually existed.

"So that's what you're reading, huh?"

I jumped and shut the book close. I knew who it was. I didn't have to turn around. I had been too engrossed in my reading to notice Dad sneak up on me which had been careless of me. What if it had been an enemy? Improbable that one would sneak up in the library, but still.

"I'm surprised you can read all this," he said, sitting down next to me.

I decided not to answer. I knew better than that.

"Why are you so interested in all this legend jumbo?" He asked. "I thought you wanted to research the founding fathers of Konoha."

"I did."

It was the truth.

I had read every book about the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan.

The problem was that there wasn't that much to read about- clans liked to keep as many secrets to themselves as possible. I assumed each clan had their own library filled with their secrets and their pasts. I knew more than the necessary about the Uchiha clan from reading and watching Naruto back in my old life. The Senju clan I knew a lot less about but it didn't bother me that much since most of the remaining Senju clan disbanded into smaller families. Some had even left the village to live elsewhere.

Such a shame too, because they were really powerful.

The Senju were once known as the 'clan with a thousand skills' because unlike other clans, they didn't specialize in just one particular skill but all three- ninjustu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. They were also the origin of the 'Will of Fire' belief that Konoha still believes in today. There was no doubt the Senju clan was very powerful... but then why did they disperse? Some things still didn't make any sense, and it drove me crazy because there weren't any sources that I knew of that could provide me with the information that I needed.

.

"I also read a good deal about chakra. I was going to start studying medical ninjutsu after finishing this," I looked down at the book in my hands.

It was old and worn out but I still planned on finishing it. I highly disliked starting a book and not finishing it.

"I see."

Pause.

"I want to start my taijutsu training soon. I think I should find someone to train me."

"You could ask your mother. I could help from time to time when I'm not on duty."

"Yes, that would be a good idea. I was planning on getting a third party involved too, but I don't really see who..."

Maybe a distant relative?

"Good idea. I'll ask around for you."

"Thanks Dad!" I smiled before returning to my reading. It was still 3:40 in the afternoon, so I still had about 20 minutes to finish up my reading and then check out a couple of medical books.

There were lots and lots of medical books to choose from. Scrolls too.

There were detailed books about different herbs and plants, an entire encyclopedia just about poisonous plants, notes of medical ninjas on their observations. I had checked some of them and they seemed to be additional notes, some even affirmed that some plants that claimed to be harmless caused intestinal problems.

Then there were rows of books dedicated to chakra healing. I borrowed one that explained how it worked so I could try to understand it. I also checked out an introductory book about healing herbs.

Medical ninjutsu was indeed very useful to know. Although I was pretty positive that I didn't want to be a medical nin, just knowing some medical jutsus could come in handy.

I went home and studied the books I had checked out.

The first was was basically full of pictures of the most common herbs that could be used for healing. Different herbs for different sicknesses, different sized wounds, even sometimes for different genders.

It was very complicated but I was determined to memorize it and know it by heart. Some herbs were more efficient if they were boiled, some worked better if they were chewed. Some even were just pressed directly on a wound. Sometimes the herb had to be inhaled for it to work.

I noticed some herbs looked the same. Especially the berries. Red berries to me were just red berries but I just couldn't afford to think like that anymore. I had to examine herbs and plants carefully before using them. Some poisonous plants looked a lot like the healing ones, and I most certainly didn't want to confuse any of them.

I wrote all my findings in notebooks- I currently had used up 5. I was already on my sixth. I didn't note down the things I learned about the Sage of the Sixth Paths and founding fathers of Konoha but did write down all the I had learned about how chakra worked and everything I read about medical herbs. Medical herbs entailed me to sketch out each plant and their root, so it took a lot of time.

The notebooks didn't contain any secretive information but I wrote it all down in a combination of both Japanese and English nonetheless. I didn't tell anyone about my notebooks though I suspected my parents knew about them.

.

When I got tired of reading or writing I practiced chakra control. I could now maintain my chakra focused in my hands for two minutes while in my feet it only lasted for exactly 55 seconds. Some days a bit more, some days a bit less.

I tried remembering several of the chakra control exercises I had seen in Naruto.

There was the leaf concentration exercise but decided I didn't need it since I could already gather my chakra and focus it at whatever point in my body.

I had practiced getting better at my chakra 'threads' but the best I could do at the moment was get it as thin as a pencil (a big improvement!).

Another trick I tried was to extend it as far as I could, only to get it to widen to about a foot away from me, past that it didn't work and my chakra snapped back at me, like an elastic.

Chakra manipulation was quite fun but required a lot of concentration, which left me mentally and physically drained afterwards. I would be too tired to do anything but sleep.

I didn't dare try the tree walking exercise since I couldn't maintain my chakra long enough to be able to walk all the way up a tree.

Instead I practiced adjusting and keeping my chakra spread out evenly in my feet when I walked. I had to adjust the amount depending on the surface I walked on. For example, when I walked on wood I spread just a good layer under my feet. If I walked on pebbles I would adjust my chakra so it would easily bend and be flexible.

.

The rest of my weeks as a four year old were pretty uneventful.

I practiced my chakra control everyday; it was like some sort of ritual. I would practice fifteen minutes at three different intervals during the day.

In the early morning I did the yoga routines Mom taught me. Sometimes Tadashi would join in. I would then eat breakfast and practice my chakra control. Then I would practice my aiming skills with Mom in the backyard, although at first she had been hesitant. I could see why- weapons were dangerous and I was still a little girl.

She made me practice with the wooden kunais that Tadashi had used so long ago.

It was weird- holding a kunai. A weapon. Designed to kill.

The first time I had aimed my kunai, the aim had been way off target. I was nervous and my fingers had been shaking badly. My mom noticed, I'm sure, but she chose not to comment. She smiled at me proudly and told me what I had to do to improve.

I had gotten increasingly better. I could now hit the target 5 times out of 10, but never the bull's eye.

Then one day I had the ingenious idea of focusing my chakra at the target and then throwing the kunai. I never missed since, much to my parent's happiness.

Focusing your chakra at the target enabled you to _see_ the target.

Well for me anyway.

It was like focusing chakra into a point in my body- I knew exactly where the point was. All I had to do was focus and gather my chakra in the direction of the target, and bingo.

When I didn't use any chakra ,I relied on my eyesight. I saw my target and I saw the bull's eye but it just wasn't enough.

What your eyes see can always end up deceiving you. That's what Dad always says. At least focusing my chakra at the target was a fail proof method.

.. Except not. My chakra control wasn't that developed yet, so I couldn't extend my chakra all the way to the target from where I was standing. I just extended my chakra in the target's general direction and then aimed. It wasn't very precise but it helped a lot and ended up working.

After weapon training with Mom, I usually ate lunch indoors though sometimes I made Mom bring me to the park to eat.

After that I practiced another fifteen minutes on my chakra control. Then I went to the library to continue studying.

I had decided I knew enough about plants to distinguish, find and use the common healing herbs in different countries and recognize any poisonous ones. Sure, I wouldn't be able to recognize every single plant and how to use them, but I knew enough to survive on my own.

I was currently studying code cracking. There were a handful of dozens of different codes every ninja were supposed to know. Some were standard Konoha ones that were used during missions or as protocol.

It amazed me how many different codes there were. Some used a variant of symbols, one was based off bird cries... There were just endless combinations.

Seeing as these codes were easily found in books in a public library, it was safe to assume that there were a lot more codes. More complex, more secretive. After all, you didn't want to use a code that was published and could be found in a public library where a mere civilian could figure it out.

After that I went home and practiced chakra control either before or after dinner.

I slowly fell into routine.

.

* * *

.


	4. Chapter 3: Childhood

_._

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

.

* * *

- Chapter 3: Childhood -

.

* * *

.

"If I had my life to live over... I'd dare to make more mistakes next time." -Nadine Stair

.

Things started to speed up for me once I turned five.

My brother had passed the genin test but had been sent back to the Academy after he failed his jounin-sensei's test, much to his displeasure.

"I was just stuck with a grumpy jounin that's all!" he had told me. "Next time I'll pass the test for sure!"

The setback had been a great source of motivation. He worked twice as hard than he used to and spent most of his free time training instead of goofing off with his friends.

I couldn't help but be proud of him.

My dad sometimes taught me some taijutsu when he wasn't on a mission and Tadashi was away at school. He mainly made me improve my speed.

"_There is no use being strong if your opponent can dodge all your attacks._"

He made me run around one of the Konoha training tracks at dusk while timing me.

The first time it had taken me around 15 minutes and I was a wheezing mess by the end of it.

I eyed my dad, annoyed.

"You probably can do that it four minutes," I accused.

"More or less," he said noncholantly.

Which probably meant less. Damn.

I _had_ to improve.

I decided to focus on improving my speed and stamina.

I started running an extra lap in the morning right after my yoga session. By the end of the next two months, I had reduced my speed to 9 minutes and 36 seconds.

I wished I could do more, but it was considered dangerous for a child's body to over-exert itself physically. I certainly didn't want to be unable to continue training. Especially since I hadn't even started yet!

.

One day, a friend of dad's came over. He introduced me to him.

"Hey Ren, come over here!" he waved me over. "Ren this is my friend Sarutobi Asuma. We're childhood friends."

_Asuma_? … …. This was Asuma? As in, you know, Asuma.

I looked more closely at him after politely bowing.

Yes, this was definitely him. I recognized his sash for further proof that I wasn't just dreaming. As if the cigarette dangling from his lips wasn't enough! I tried not to freak out.

_He was still alive!_

Meeting him made me realize that there was a future approaching. That there was evil lurking. That hundreds of people would die. But all of this solidified my resolve in becoming stronger in order to change all that bad stuff.

"I asked him if he could help you with your taijutsu. Remember you asked me about that? He kindly agreed to do it."

"Thank you Asuma-sensei," I said, still a bit disbelieving. Asuma was going to teach _me_?

"No problem kid. It'll be training for me too. I'm going to be a jounin instructor one of these days so I need to get used to kids."

"Well it's a good thing you chose Asuma-sensei dad. He's more specialized in taijutsu than you, so he'll be a bigger help."

All true. Dad was a long to mid range fighter that specialized in genjutsu. He knew some earth techniques but that was about it.

Asuma on the other hand, had a fighting style centered around taijutsu. I honestly don't think I could of asked for better, except maybe a certain Green Beast of Konoha, but that thought instantly sent shivers to my spine. I didn't want to be pushed to those extremes just yet.

Gai was known for his insane taijutsu drills and I don't think my five year old body would be able to withstand after a training lesson from Gai.

"How'd you know that?" Dad asked surprised, but his tone was bordering on suspicion.

Oh. Right.

"I don't know what you mean." I tried my best to act confused as I looked up innocently at him. "Asuma-sensei is the Third Hokage's son. He specializes in hand to hand combat with the aid of his special trench knives. He's also part of the Twelve Guardian Ninja." I rolled my eyes to try to make my act more convincing. "C'mon dad, everyone knows about him."

Asuma chuckled which resulted in my Dad smiling.. but I knew I was going to be questioned later. Great. I'd just have to tell him I read his files in the archives.

"I can train you Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 4. We'll train on the third training ground. We can start next week if you're ready."

I nodded. Hell yeah I was ready! I grinned.

.

* * *

.

Asuma was a generalist. He was good at everything but not exceptional at anything either. He knew some wind and fire jutsus, some kick ass taijutsu moves, and was a pretty good strategist.

Training with Asuma-sensei was a lot different then training with my father.

While Dad made me practice my speed by just making me repeat the same exercise, Asuma made me do at least a dozen different ones.

The first thing I learned from Asuma were the basic fighting stances.

You had offensive, defensive, and a combo of both. Depending on how you positioned you body your feet, where you placed your arms, it enabled you to either quickly block an opponent or quickly attack an opponent. It could also leave option to both, used to counter attack whatever moves your opponent decided to use.

Stances were modified depending on the person to favor their height, weight, speed, aim, and strength.

Once I had gotten the basic stances down and adapted them to my liking, Asuma made me practice my aim by punching and kicking a dummy.

Before I hit, I pinpointed the areas of where I wanted to strike and kicked directly at spots in which I knew- after reading many, many medical books- would numb the opponents legs or arms for a while. Granted, it did nothing like a Hyuuga's attack, blocking out an opponents tenketsu (the body's chakra points), but it gave me enough time during a battle to slow them down and try to make a run for it. A few seconds could be life changing.

"Hm. That's pretty good," He nodded after a while of careful observing.

I smiled proudly.

"Thanks. I'm pretty good at all that aiming stuff so I just decided to block off the tenketsu right there," I pointed to the inside of the right thigh. "I read that it temporarily numbs the right leg. And since most shinobis are right handed, it would be the same for the feet right? There's also that chakra point right there."

I pointed to the dummy's inside right shoulder just below the armpit.

"That's a good place to hit too."

"You learned this though reading?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about healing and the body system," I said, nodding.

"You planning on being a medical nin?"

I looked at him, frowning.

"I considered it," I admitted. "I don't want to anymore. Medic nins are useful and all, but if you're _just_ a medic nin then you're just kind of useless on the field. You're a liability. I want to become a strong kunoichi. That way I can still protect myself while protecting others."

Pause.

…

"I see. That's a very interesting idea," He said, taking a a drag of his cigarette.

… I decided I would take that as a compliment.

.

We also practiced meditation.

Meditation helped the body, the mind, and the soul. I knew from the Naruto series, Neji practiced meditation a lot.

Meditation was supposed to help keep focus but also helped me relax.

During meditation you were told to visualize your chakra in your body. It was oddly relaxing, feeling the warm liquid-like substance flow throughout your entire being.

I trained with Asuma-sensei everyday for the next three months. He helped me improve my taijutsu skills by _a lot_. The difference was so enormous that I felt like one of those 'after' pictures people posted after completing a diet.

I also spent a lot of time on my own, either practicing weapon training or controlling chakra or going to the Konoha Archives and Library to learn as much as I could about the ninja world. Presently, I was divulging in any books that talked about battle strategics.

Strategics required you to think a couple steps ahead. In order to do that, you had to know the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent and yourself. If you were in a team, you had better know your teammates pretty well. Sometimes the books asked you questions; What would you do in this scenario?

I spent _hours_ planning it all out and thinking it through. Yet, in the end, I still felt as if my plans had lots of holes- weak spots. That's mainly why you were required to think ahead. If there was a hole in your plan what would you do then? You had to think about the different outcomes of every move you made and then plan from there to determine what you would do for each case. It really left more than _hundreds _of possibilities. Possibly more.

I planned my battle strategics using the 'family tree' method I used to use in mathematics when I was younger in my old life to determine the different probabilities of an outcome. It was a very long process, but I found it amusing, sort of like a puzzle.

Aside from training, I didn't make any new friends. I really didn't have time too.

I would meet plenty of children when I joined the Academy. War was going to start in almost a decade, and I couldn't afford to just sit around playing cats cradle or tag. I _had_ to become stronger and smarter.

Occasionally though, Mom would invite Yoshino and Shikamaru over for tea. This was really rare, but when it happened I was glad to see Shikamaru again. We went outside and talked while our mothers gossiped.

Shikamaru was very smart. Even at this age.

I was glad I had him as a friend because I don't think any other child my age would have been able to keep an interesting enough conversation with me.

"Dad's making me enroll at The Academy next year," he said. "I imagine you're joining too."

"Yup!" I nodded. "It's going to be fun learning how to become a ninja, don't you think?'

"It'll be troublesome..." he groaned. "But I suppose..."

I laughed at the expression he made.

"You know I've been training with a jounin this past year?" I said, smugly.

"Oh really? What did you do?"

"We mostly practiced my taijutsu, since I sucked at it," I started to explain.

We talked about many things. Sometimes we just sat there and stared at the clouds, other times I got him to join in my battle strategics 'game'. We started with the scenarios proposed in the books but then went ahead and made up our own.

"Why do you always make my opponents S-rank?" groaned Shikamaru one afternoon.

"It's fun that way," I replied, smiling. "Good real world practice."

"Bah!" He said, grumbling something about me having a sadistic personality.

"Good practice," I responded again.

.

I kept doing yoga as my morning warm up, except now there were more complicated poses added. A lot of them required perfect balance and flexibility.

I liked yoga a lot because it reminded me somewhat of gymnastics.

Mom had also upped my weapons training; teaching me how to throw weapons at different targets _simultaneously_.

It was a crazy but really cool idea. Mom herself could only throw at three different targets at the same time and she was only a civilian.

Hitting different targets consecutively was hard enough since I had to adjust my chakra after every throw. I had gotten faster at throwing, but not fast enough.

My hand movements were too slow and still a little clumsy. But I supposed I had my still somewhat pudgy fingers to blame.

Throwing weapons at a target simultaneously was extremely tricky.

I tried hitting two targets at the same time first.

I hit my first target but missed the second one by at least a foot. I couldn't concentrate my chakra in two different directions. It felt like looking in two different directions at the same time.

The next few weeks I practiced focusing more on my second target while hitting the first target naturally. Since I wasn't very good at aiming without using my chakra, I practiced throwing my wooden kunais without it.

.

* * *

.

Days went by quickly.

The weather was pretty much the same throughout the year at Konoha. It was extremely hot during the summer and there was heavy rain in the spring, but other than that the weather was constant.

Konoha was very, very big. But maybe I had that impression since I viewed things from a child's perspective.

In the manga and anime, I hadn't really paid attention to how Konoha was laid out so sometimes after I went to the Konoha library I would explore.

There were a lot of small narrow streets that served as a passageway between houses. There were the main roads which held the food stores, gift shops, clothing and weapon supplies. There was an aviary, a river, a cemetary, the parks, the school, the Hokage monument, and lots and lots of training grounds. This was just the town, then if you went a bit beyond, there were the forests, the mines, and loads more of other things.

I think Shikamaru once talked about his clan having a medical storage somewhere in the forests.

I made sure to sketch everywhere that I went.

It took a lot of time so I didn't explore and sketch often, but once every few weeks I would take a good two hours and try to figure Konoha out.

My mother wasn't very pleased when I came home later than usual, telling me that I could get hurt if I wandered around.

I doubted that was the case though.

Konoha was one of the friendliest ninja villages, at least to my knowledge. If I was ever to get into trouble all I had to do was, I don't know, scream and there would be ninja rescuing me.

OK, maybe it didn't work exactly like that, but I felt safe, and that was all that mattered.

But I knew, deep inside, that I was only lulling myself into a false sense of security.

Things were going to change soon, and not for the better.

.

* * *

.


	5. Chapter 4: The Academy

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

_._

* * *

- Chapter 4: The Academy -

.

* * *

.

"In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy." -J. Paul Getty

.

My sixth birthday was probably the one that I was looking the most forward to.

Being six meant that I could finally enroll at the Academy in September. It meant that I could officially become a ninja.

I hadn't had much contact with children my age, so it was hard to tell how I would react, being around dozens of boisterous, energetic children. Hm...

The thought didn't sound very appealing.

I wouldn't be going to school with Tadashi, because we had found out the month before that Tadashi had passed and become an official genin of Konoha. Everyone at home was in a good mood for weeks.

Having another family member parade a shiny forehead protector made me feel proud.

Tadashi was starting to get busy with missions during the day but never the less, he always found time to spend with me to help me train. We would sometimes stay late outside practicing his aim and my speed.

Sometime during that period, mom took me to the Academy to complete my registration form to enter the school.

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My sixth birthday party was small, much like my previous ones. My mom had invited other people for the first time though. Shika and his parents came, along with my grandfather on my mother's side. Asuma-sensei stopped by as well, which pleased me a lot.

Grandfather got me a new real set of shuriken and kunai, straight from his shop.

Grandfather owned a weapon shop on the main street. His family were long established blacksmiths that worked for Konoha. Sometimes I would stop by his house to deliver some cookies or cake. He taught me a lot about the various weapons.

My parents gave me a ring.

I immediately knew it was important, judging by the way they handled the small package carefully.

It was too big for my finger. When you looked at it carefully there were Japanese engravings, too small to read.

"It's been passed down my family for ages. The eldest daughter inherits it, so take good care of it," announced Mom, looking at me proudly.

"What does it mean?" I asked, still trying to figure it out.

"It says 'you must persevere to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks',"recited Mom.

I think that for my parents, the ring symbolized that I was on my way to becoming a ninja. I put the ring on a silver chain, so I wouldn't lose it.

I thanked them and Tadashi for the gifts. Kunoichi clothes, a pair of real kunai, a hip pouch full of explosive tags, and three blank storage scrolls.

Shikamaru and his family gave me healing herbs their clan grew.

Now that I was officially six, it meant I was one step closer in finally becoming a ninja.

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* * *

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"So you're finally going to enter the Academy," said Asuma-sensei, blowing a puff of smoke.

We sat next to each other on the hill next to the training field. It was tranquil and serene.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Tell me, why do you want to become a ninja? What is your reason for becoming stronger?" he asked.

I thought about it.

"I want to become a ninja to serve my village and its people with my life. I want to become stronger in order to change the future," I said, somewhat hesitantly.

"Change the future?"

"That is why I strive to become stronger," I said, offering no more explanation.

We sat in silence.

"Are you afraid of dying?" he finally asked. "That is the future of a ninja."

"Everybody dies... I think I would rather die protecting someone dear to me than die of old life..."

"Indeed. It is the end of an honorable ninja."

Honorable ninja... I thought about it.

Itachi had been an honorable ninja but he sacrificed everything. His family, his friends, his reputation. What if I was ever put in a situation like that? The decision was too hard and painful to think about. I could only hope I would never have to choose.

I stayed quiet. Would I really be strong enough to change the future? Would I be strong enough to save Asuma-sensei?

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* * *

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When September came around, I was extremely excited.

On the awaited first day of school, I woke up extra early in order to fit in my yoga session before school. School started at 8:30 so I woke up at 6:30 in the morning.

Yoga had become a part of my daily routine since I was four, and not doing it seemed just... wrong.

I dressed in a comfortable creamy white shirt and black cargo pants. I had to tie bandages around my right calf to keep the pants from flapping around everywhere.

I didn't wear any jewlery except for my silver earrings and ring my parents had given me.

After eating breakfast and brushing my teeth, I walked out the door, followed by Dad.

He walked me to school and I stood proudly next to him.

After all, I was the daughter of a skilled shinobi. Being a jounin wasn't nothing.

He dropped me off in the midst of a heard of rambunctious children and wished me luck.

"See you later, stay safe," he told me, before I headed inside the Academy.

Orientation for first years was mandatory and took place a day before school officially started for everyone else.

I searched for my name 'Tanaka, Ren' on the bulletin board in the hallway.

I had to push my through the children to get a good look at it.

_Tanaka, Ren- Room D30_.

What a bothersome system. They should have had the instructors call out the names instead of just letting six year old fend for themselves.

I navigated through the other kids to get to my classroom.

Some were confused. One girl was crying. Some were packed in bunches. There were loud ones. Quiet ones. Weird ones.

So many different chakras.

To my right I could feel an unfamiliar chakra that resembled a coin. The person in front of me had chakra that reminded me of a lace tablecloth.

The different chakras confused me.

Room D30, it turned out, wasn't that hard to find, but took me longer to get to in my confusion.

Luck was not- or was it?- on my side.

You probably already guessed it.

I was in the same class as _them_. The famous Rookie 9.

_Hell_.

Well technically, not _all_ of the Rookie 9 were present. Just Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Kiba and Shino. But it was enough to make me want to run the hell back home.

I was frozen.

I told my mom I would become a genin, and if backed down on my word now it would be humiliating.

Failure was unnaceptable.

But if I became a genin I would replace one of the original Rookie 9. It would completely ruin the plot. I mean, what if I replaced _Naruto_? Bad idea. Very bad idea.

Unless maybe, I was placed on a different team and then passed the test. But weren't only 9 graduates made genin?

I contemplated the different outcomes in my head like I did when I was doing battle strategics.

"Um, are you going to stay there all day? Move."

I turned around to see a guy with spiky brown hair glaring at me. I later learned that his name was Kora. I returned the glower, but moved out of the way.

What a brat.

I looked around the room and spotted Shikamaru in the back of the classroom.

I decided to sit beside Shikamaru. He was the only kid I knew in this class, so it was a logical choice. I hadn't seen him in a while, but it didn't matter, we considered each other as friends.

"Hey," I said smiling briefly at him before sitting next to his familiar chakra; strong willed and observant like a brass shield.

"Hi," he nodded, looking bored as usual.

"Lucky we're in the same class then, huh?" I said, eying the other children dubiously.

"This class sure looks troublesome," he grunted.

He was right. This class was a flat out mess. I had never been around so many children my age before... I frowned, thinking that I would have been better off learning alone. How was I supposed to become strong in this type of environment?

I noticed Chouji munching on ..barbecue?.. chips on the other side of Shikamaru. I tilted my head to the side, trying to get a good feel of his chakra.

His chakra felt happy. It reminded me of those small blue bouncy balls kids played with at the park. I decided I liked his chakra. It was loving and embracing.

During all these years of observing chakra, none of the chakra resembled the same thing or gave off the same type of aura. Even if two chakras felt alike, there was always something a little off that made the difference.

I think it had to do with the fact that everyone's chakra was different. Just like everyone has different DNA. It's unique and one in a kind. Chakra was a combination of one's physical and spiritual energy. Chakra, I reasoned, was a reflection of oneself.

"Alright class, settle down!" Iruka-sensei yelled. "Settle down!"

This was the fifth time he had tried to calm down the in the time span of two minutes.

Nobody listened.

I blamed Kiba. I swear, he's just as bad as I remembered Naruto being when he was younger.

Loud and obnoxious he was. Kiba was currently recalling his ninja training to his friend, loud enough for the whole class to hear.

"I'm going to call roll, if I catch anyone talking after I call the first name I'm putting them on the cleaning brigade for the rest of the month," announced Iruka.

Well that shut everyone up.

'Cleaning brigade' was pretty humiliating. Nobody wanted to be spotted in the bright green uniforms you were forced to put on. Not only that, but while the other students were on break you were forced to clean up the classroom, or worse, the bathrooms.

Nobody wanted to get caught dead in the cleaning brigade- it was ten times worse then being held back after school for detention. The instructors knew this and used it to their advantage.

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Iruka-sensei showed us around the school. The Academy was situated right next to the Hokage tower. The school was pretty big and the training grounds for taijutsu were decent enough.

He also explained to us briefly what was expected of us as potential ninja and what we would learn.

We took an oath about pledging allegiance to serving the village and before I knew it, it was already time for lunch.

I took my lunch and sat next to Chouji, Shikamaru following me. I decided I should probably introduce myself. It was after all, the polite thing to do.

"Hi, I'm Tanaka, Ren," I smiled and opened my packed lunch- seaweed onigri and an apple.

"I'm Akimichi, Choji," munched Choji, smiling back at me.

"We already know each other," said Shikamaru in a bored voice.

Sometimes his nonchalant demeanor was misinterpreted into haughtiness and indifference, which was not the case.

It was just Shika. That's just who he was.

He liked to mumble to himself and stare at the clouds. He was lazy and played board games. In all honesty, Shikamaru reminded me of an old man.

We ate silently. The silence, which I had expected to be awkward, was strangely calming. No worries. Just peace and quiet.

That's when I started to notice two or three people staring at me strangely. For the first time in this new life, I felt self-conscious.

I supposed it was my hair.

My mom had a soft red mane of hair while my father had spiky brown hair. Tadashi had a murky sort of deep red-brown. I had inherited dark purple hair. Mom said my great grandfather had the same purple hair. Odd how genetics worked out.

I stood out, that much I knew with my combination of dark purple hair and light colored eyes, which I hesitated to call blue. They were too light to be called 'blue'. They were more a hazy, reminding me of swirls of mist. Maybe gray was more appropriate.

I said I stood out, but compared to Naruto's flashy blond hair and Sakura's pink hair, my strange straits appeared more subtle.

I noticed Sakura first. She looked so different from how the manga last portrayed her. Then, she had been confident and strong willed.

Observing her was uncomfortable. She looked so _unsure_ and scared. She was trying to appear nonchalant but I could tell. I could always tell.

"So, Ren, are you still training with that jounin?," Shikamaru finally said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, I work daily to improve my speed and stamina," I nodded looking up at the sky. "Did your parents train you guys before you enrolled?"

"Not really. Mostly meditation," He drawled.

I nodded, understanding.

Meditation helped your chakra control. He had been training in chakra control. He was probably too young to start learning clan techniques, but that didn't stop his parents from helping him learn chakra control.

After all, the faster he learned how to mold and control chakra the faster he would learn his clan's techniques. Though that didn't sound right since the Nara clan were known for being extremely lazy. They wouldn't rush into things. But they were also smart, so I had no doubt in mind they lead Shikamaru in the right direction.

"My parents made me learn some taijutsu," said Choji, nervously.

Which was partly true, since after all, the Akimichi technique was all taijutsu. But I could tell Choji had been focused on other things than training, which was something that made sense. He was only a kid after all. He also didn't know there was a war coming.

"What are your dreams for the future?" I asked, breaking the silence.

They thought about it for a long time.

"I want to become an average ninja and go on average missions. Marry a regular girl who isn't too ugly and not too pretty. Have two children, first a girl then a boy. Retire after my daughter is married and my son becomes a successful ninja, and spend the rest of my life playing shogi or go. Then die of old age before my wife," said Shikamaru.

I giggled slightly- how typical of him- then stopped short.

His dream would never come true. He would become one of the best young ninja of his year and would be dragged into the most dangerous missions.

I didn't know anything about his future wife but according to the manga, the choices were probably between Ino and Temari- whom were far from being just 'average'.

"You should probably pick another dream," I advised still looking at the sky.

He didn't answer, but then again, I hadn't expected him too. He never questioned me, which I found odd at first, but had eventually accepted.

I didn't think what I was telling him would change the plot. It wasn't a foretelling of the future.

"What's your dream then?" He asked, looking up at the sky as well.

"I want to become as strong as I can. That is my dream."

It was more than that, but I knew I shouldn't tell him. Being strong was a goal. My dream was a lot bigger that.

"That sounds like a troublesome dream if you ask me," He said.

It _was_ a troublesome dream. But it was my goal, what I had been training for since I decided I wanted to become a ninja.

"It is the dream of many ninja... What about you Chouji?"

"I want to make my family proud and make lots of friends!" said Choji, smiling.

"That's a wonderful dream," I smiled at him.

Thus began the beginning of my second friendship.

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* * *

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The following days were pretty chaotic. There were so many chakras in the school now that the older students had arrived.

I was left feeling naseous but after a couple of days, I got used to being overwhelmed with the different kinds of chakra, memorizing their different auras.

I spent the rest of the year paying attention in class and simultaneously reading books or practicing my chakra strings.

I didn't have time anymore in my schedule to continue going to library with exception of weekends- but it was hardly enough time. I brought two books from the library everyday to class to read.

Right now I was learning about famous ninjas- dead _and _alive.

I started with the ninja from Konoha, then moved on the ones in Kiri and Taki and so forth.

Learning about powerful ninja was somewhat useful since many of the ninjas from the village they originated from copied their moves in attempt to become as strong as they were. A lot of their descriptions were vague and imprecise but I did learn the reason of why they were famous.

Most of the famous ninjas had kekkai genkais with the exception of few.

I also spent a lot of time looking up the different kekkai genkais. _Abilities passed down genetically in specific clans_.

The kekkai genkai I had the most knowledge about was the Sharingan.

What I remembered about the Sharingan from the Naruto series was far more informative then what I found researching. Which was understandable- the Uchiha didn't want clan secrets divulged, just like the Huuygas were protective of their Byakugan.

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Asuma-sensei also kept training me, but instead of four hours a week he suggested we practice six instead. I trained two hours after school on Thursdays and three hours Saturday mornings and another one in the afternoon.

He helped mostly with improving me speed and stamina, occasionally working on developing my taijutsu skills.

My taijutsu skills were pretty advanced for my age but compared to Asuma-sensei, I was still _really_ behind.

We practiced going over complex offensive and defensive katas.

The first ones I learned were fairly easy- a right kick to the shoulder, a punch there.. He then moved on to teaching me longer, more complicated katas that needed precision and speed and good memorization... Some routines went on for a good ten minutes.

Training with Asuma, left me sore for days. I had to carry around medical herbs with me to help with the pain.

Mom kept teaching me on how to multi handle weapons and halfway through the year, I had gotten it down. My techniques were still sloppy and I doubted they were anywhere near Tenten's abilities, but maybe one day I would get it.

When I had any sort of spare time I spent it practicing my chakra control. I practiced molding the thinnest chakra threads I could manage and expanding them to the longest range I could muster. Sometimes I practiced molding my chakra into different shapes. Cubes, balls, anything really.

Sometimes I just wanted to stop training all together, but I knew I couldn't afford such a thing.

I had no huge chakra reserve like Naruto, or a cool kekkai genkai like Sasuke and Neji. I probably wasn't even as fast as Lee. I didn't have any superhuman strength nor any other great abilities.

Even one day of rest would probably mess me up. I just couldn't let myself sit around all day looking at the clouds or playing shogi. I had to continue training. I just had to become stronger.

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One Saturday, Asuma-sensei had been unable to teach me because he was out for a mission that would take an entire week to complete. He had to accompany some sort of important political figure back to one of the other hidden ninja villages, Suna.

It annoyed me that I wouldn't be able to train with him, but I just had to cope. I couldn't just whine about it and do nothing.

I had gone to the training grounds by myself and gone through the katas Asuma-sensei had taught me. It was during the third kata that I decided it would be interesting if I tried tree climbing with my chakra.

I had sufficient chakra control and could maintain the chakra evenly in my feet for about two minutes. I could maintain my chakra for a longer time in my hands though, so I decided to try tree climbing using my hands.

I frowned, adjusting my chakra to stick onto the bark of the tree.

Tentatively, I hauled myself up a little while sticking to the tree trunk. I redistributed my chakra in my hands so they would be able to carry my weight.

I managed to climb all the way up to a branch midway to the top.

I decided that it was safe to start my Tree Climbing exercises.

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At the Academy I didn't learn much, much to my dissapointment.

We learned very simple math, and learned how to write and read. Seeing I already knew all of this I took that time to practice my chakra threads.

We also learned about Konoha and its history. I had already read the history manual they gave out to students as well as the _Introductory to jutsu and chakra control_ textbook.

We didn't actually learn about chakra yet, but the book was still there if you were interested.

We did however, learn the twelve hand seals. Everyday we were to go over them. They had to be done precisely- sloppiness wasn't allowed. When we got the hand seals down, we practiced executing them in various speeds and patterns.

I had difficulty learning the different seals at first. Once I grew accustomed to where I had to place my fingers, it sort of came naturally. I suppose the exercises my Mom made me do to practice my multitasking helped with my coordination.

Perfect hand seals were considered very important. It didn't matter how strong your jutsu was if your opponent could get to you before you had time to finish your hand seals. Right? _Speed_. I needed to become faster.

I needed to be a lot of things. Things that I wasn't. Yet.

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* * *

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I was reserved in class and didn't bother raising my hand to answer questions even though I knew the answer.

I guess I just didn't want to stand out. It was a shinobi's job to be discreet and blend in with the crowd.

I didn't really try to make friends, although I did get along quite well with Hasuo, another guy from my class.

He had the best grades in our class, taijutsu wise. He didn't come from a clan or have outstanding abilities- just hardwork and determination, like me.

I found most of my classmates annoying and noisy. Sometimes we would all play games during lunch, one of them called 'Ninja'.

I know, not a very original name.

The game was a cross between tag and hide and seek mixed in with shuriken made out of cardboard and sticks.

I was fairly good at the game, although the first few times I had misjudged how hard I had to throw the projectile, not used to working with cardboard. Teams usually fought to have me on their team.

Chouji and Shika never played and eventually I stopped playing to join them. I had explained to them that the game wasn't challenging enough and I preferred spending time with them two anyways. I often read books or practiced my chakra strings while Shika gazed at the clouds and Chouji ate.

Now that I thought about it, Choji and Shikamaru were probably the best choice in friends anyway. They wouldn't use me to get good grades or sell me out to take the blame. They didn't try to show off in class.

Their presence often calmed me and managed to get me to momentarily forget the reasons why I was training so hard everyday.

Mental stress for a six year old was definitely not good and in them I found a sort of salvation.

They kept me from going crazy. Sometimes I wondered what I would have done without them.

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* * *

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	6. Chapter 5: Infantilism

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

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* * *

- Chapter 5: Infantilism -

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* * *

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"Happiness depends upon ourselves." -Aristotle

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I asked Dad about genjutsu one night.

I had learned that we would only learn about genjutsu in a couple of years at school and the prospect of waiting that long to learn about it irked me.

What was I supposed to do to disperse it? How could I recognize if I was trapped in one? Did casting a genjutsu drain a lot of chakra? If so, how much?

He had answered all of my questions calmly and patiently.

Genjutsu was the disruption of the opponents chakra flow by insertion of your own chakra into their cerebral nervous system, controlling their mind's chakra. Genjutsu required lots of skill; if you got it wrong it wouldn't work. Even powerful ninjas like Jiraiya had trouble with genjutsu.

To disperse genjutsu, you had to stop your chakra flow and then create a strong burst of chakra to dispel your opponent's chakra.

It can also be achieved by having an unaffected person applying the surge of chakra into you or having them apply intense pain, causing you to come back to your senses.

Genjutsu was like ninjutsu; it required hand seals and chakra, except instead of harming the body it manipulated the victim's chakra in the brain. To correctly perform an acceptable genjutsu you had to have precise chakra control.

Maybe learning the fundamentals of genjutsu couldn't really hurt me. In fact, I would probably be able to spot if I was in a genjutsu on my own, since I would be able to sense the intruding chakra.

Releasing the jutsu was another story.

I would have to look into that sometime.

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* * *

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My days at the Academy ran pretty smoothly. As promised, I ranked in the top 10 percentile, happily surprising the rest of my family. I sensed a bit of jealousy coming from Tadashi but it went away as quickly as I had noticed the feeling.

Truth be told, the written tests I was given were easy. The questions revolved around mathematics and history namely, but sometimes we got quizzed to measure our logic and analytical skills.

The taijutsu they taught at this age didn't require that much speed or stamina. Simple timed obstacle courses and timed laps around the field.

I forced myself to slow down my pace during those drills.

The fastest runner in our class was Hasuo-san. He wast the fastest in the class but only came up to a third of my real speed, which pleased me. At least I knew Asuma-sensei wasn't fooling around when he was teaching me.

I forced myself to only use half of my real strength during hand to hand combat exercises and a third of my speed during timed races.

Hand to hand combat wasn't very challenging to my dismay.

For some reason, Iruka always paired girls against girls and guys against guys. Sexist, much?

I was always paired off with a girl that had no training outside of the Academy in taijutsu.

A weak punch to her stomach and it was over for her.

Asuma was a much more interesting challenge.

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I had already vowed not to be labeled 'prodigy'. The only way to make absolutely sure I wouldn't be pushed to skip ahead a couple of years I was forced to appear weaker than I really was.

I had already decided I was going to lay low on the taijutsu and ninjutsu exercises. That way I could be assured people wouldn't think I was some sort of genius and have me graduate early.

Truth be told, I think several ninja purposely appeared weaker than they really were. Shino was one.

(Aburame Shino, from the Aburame clan. Silent, observing, misjudged. Once I had glanced at his paper and everything he had written was to the point and precise. Nothing was said without reason.)

After all, if we were to fight against teammates, it was an advantage for your opponent to underestimate you. I knew for a fact that Shikamaru was a genius yet he only scored in the top 30 percentile on written tests. He was probably too damned lazy to even try.

I liked having conversations with him even though most of the time we stayed in silence. We didn't need to talk. We just understood each other.

Chouji was really adorable and I didn't mind hanging around him too. I brought an extra bag of chips for him everyday.

I didn't bother to make any other friends. The girls in my class were too occupied about their looks- really though? They were only six!- and boys -again, they were only six!.

It was crazy how much six year old girls talked about guys. I didn't see any importance in guys, especially our age. Maybe it had to do with the fact I had the mind of a nineteen year old girl and the mere _thought_ of hitting on a six year old repulsed me.

_Ew_.

Ino definitely won, hands down, the number one gossiper of Konoha. She was loud mouthed and got on daily screaming matches with Kiba.

Sometimes, when the screaming got _really_ loud, I contemplated giving them a good punch in the face to shut them up.

I never did- for obvious reasons.

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Hasuo was also becoming a good friend of mine.

Well maybe 'friend' was a far stretch, but we did get along.

He was the best in our class, and many people looked up to him.

Unlike I remembered Sasuke to be, Hasuo was kind. Well... 'kind' in his own way.

He wasn't outright rude, but he wasn't super nice either. I guess a good word to describe him was 'polite'. He never put in the effort to be anything else.

I helped him go over his taijutsu katas. His differed from mine slightly- his focused more on strength than speed.

He was fast but what impressed me most was his strength. Strength was never something I valued but observing Hasuo made me realize that I lacked considerably in it.

I wasn't jealous of Hasuo, nor was I a fan-girl, which I think was the main reason Hasuo didn't mind having me as a taijutsu partner.

He was cute, in a messy boy-ish way. But as I have already stated, hitting on a six year old- even though, technically I was one too- should be illegal.

I didn't hang out with him like I did with Chouji and Shikamaru. Nor did I talk to him about topics that weren't related to work. We were just classmates.

Maybe one of the reasons I didn't mind hanging around Hasuo was because he was really mature for his age. He didn't get into fights, nor did he scream. Sometimes he played Ninja. All you really saw him do though was train.

In some ways, Hasuo was a lot like me.

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One day in class, I decided to practice one of the jutsus detailed in the school textbook. It was an E-ranked technique, taught to second and third year students.

I looked over the hand seals and practiced them under my desk, trying to get the rhythm down. Ram- Boar- Ox- Dog- pause- Snake. Ram- Boar- Ox- Dog- pause- Snake. Ram- Boar- Ox- Dog- pause- Snake.

The Body Replacement Technique. Simple but effective.

I decided to continue to work on it at home.

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"You're really weird, you know," Ino told me one day.

"Pardon?"

Ino had never talked to me before. Well maybe once, but only to borrow a pencil. A pencil she never gave back, now that I think of it.

"I mean, no offense, but you hang out with _guys_. Don't you have any _girl_ friends?"

"No."

What did it concern her anyways?

"And why not? It's not healthy to hang out with guys that much," she said matter-of-factly. "That's what my cousin always tells me and she's a _genin_. In fact, she's in an all girl group. I want to be in an all girl group too. Although, I wouldn't mind having Sasuke-kun in my group. Like this, if anything happens, he'll come and rescue me!"

".. Sasuke is a guy isn't he?"

"Sasuke-kun isn't just _any_ guy. He's hot!"

I stared incredulously at her. She was six, right? Had girls back in my own world been that obsessed with guys? I couldn't remember.

"Whatever."

"He _is_! And one day I'm going to marry him! I planned my wedding with him and everything. You're invited, but since we're not good friends you'll have to sit in the back."

I could have _sworn_ I just saw hearts form in her eyes.

Delusional.

I needed to get away from her.

"I have to go train. Nice talking to you! Bye!" I yelled before sprinting off to go find a place to take refuge in.

Crazy girl.

I was somewhat glad I wasn't reborn into Sasuke's body. What a crazy mess that would have been.

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	7. Chapter 6: Continuance

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

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* * *

- Chapter 6: Continuance -

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* * *

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"It is not so much our friends help that helps us, as the confident knowledge that they will help us." -Epicurus

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I was now seven.

My first year at the Academy had been fairly easy. Now I knew how I compared to others my age, and was fairly confident of my abilities.

The second year was a bit more challenging because we finally started to learn about chakra. We practiced a lot of chakra focusing exercises, especially on the leaf concentrating exercise.

My classmates weren't exactly the same anymore, but I was glad Shikamaru and Chouji were still in my class.

Shino and Ino weren't in our class anymore though.

Personally, I was glad Ino had left. She left me migraines after all her gossiping. She somehow knew everything that happened and I was starting to wonder if she had an all seeing and hearing jutsu.

Which reminded me- didn't the Third Hokage have a crystal ball like that? What a creep. I bet he spied on people on the time. I shuddered. I bet he was some sort of senile pervert.

Shino and I were never close, although I preferred his silence to Ino's gossip. I've never been able to witness his bug jutsus but I suppose I wouldn't ever get the chance to until after I graduated. I suppose it was because the Aburame clan wanted to keep those jutsus secret.

.

Lectures were held rarely, but on such occasion I listened attentively.

One lecture that I found particularly interesting, was when a jounin, Aoba Yamashiro, came to talk to us about intelligence gathering and infiltration.

Most of our lectures however, were about tactics and strategies. I had grown to love coming up with that sort of stuff, and even though I had already learned about most of the methods taught, I still listened attentively.

We also learned about the first and second great shinobi world wars in history.

There wasn't much information about the first shinobi world war: a lot of records were found but there was a lot of trouble determining which ones were really accurate or not. The first war had erupted between the five great shinobi countries mostly because of a complicated political intrigue that had much to do with '_I want to become the strongest_'.The Second Hokage died during this war.

The second shinobi world war started twenty years after the first. There had been a period of peace between that, but most countries were left struggling economically. Countries wanted to expand their land and thus, the second shinobi world war started.

Konoha had many skilled ninja on their side during this war. The ones I knew of were the Legendary Three Sannin and Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, who was Kakashi's father.

We finally started to learn ninjutsu. _Rope Escape Technique_ was one of the small number of ones Iruka-sensei tried to teach us.

It occurred to me that we probably wouldn't be learning the Transformation or the Clone Techniques this year (or any time soon for that matter) since they were considered the hardest ones to learn at the Academy.

Transformations techniques, in order to fool your opponent, had to be perfect.

I remembered that during the chunin Exams, Sasuke had immediately recognized Naruto to be a fake because of minor details that were different.

That led me to observe all my classmates closely.

You had to observe the way they talked, to how they walked, their posture, what they liked or disliked, what foot or hand they favored, etc. The list went on and on.

I spent a week observing one student in my class and then moved on to a next one.

For example, Hasuo favored his right hand but his left foot. He disliked grapes. His usual response to questions were a drawled out 'I don't know'. He wore his hip pouch on the right side. When he was nervous he would shift his weight to his right foot. He was tense in his shoulders and tended to hunch his back slightly.

I could go on and on, but I think you understand where I'm getting at.

Transformations weren't just copying how the person looked in order to fool someone they knew, but how they acted. And even then, I probably wouldn't be able to fool Hasuo's parents, for example.

Not only that, but it would be impossible for me to copy his chakra, so talented chakra sensors would be able to see me as a fake anyway.

I practiced ninjutsu either before or after my training with Asuma-sensei. Preferably when I knew he wasn't anywhere in sight.

Dog- Boar- Ram.

Poof!

I looked down and smiled, correctly transforming into my dad.

I had learned all the jutsus that were in our school textbooks last summer. Now I started to work on some D-rank techniques that were more challenging than the E-ranked ones we learned in class.

One that I took particular interest in was the _Body Flicker Technique_. It didn't have anything to do with space-time ninjutsu, despite what most people thought.

It allowed the user to move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed, making it appear as if he or she had teleported.

I also wanted to work on elemental jutsu. I didn't know what my elemental affinity was though, so I had to find a chakra paper.

I had a larger store of chakra than kids my age but I think that's because I had practiced manipulating chakra at a young age, each time testing its limits. There was still room for it to expand of course but there would come a time where my chakra reserves would stop growing.

.

* * *

.

I asked Asuma-sensei for a chakra paper the next time I saw him.

In order to know what elemental affinity you had you had to feed your chakra into the paper and depending on how it reacted you would know what your elemental affinity was.

Having an elemental affinity made it easier for you to learn and control the nature element in question compared to someone who didn't have that affinity.

Ninja weren't limited to the element they had an affinity to. It was possible to develop affinities to other elements later on; most ninja were required to have control over two elements in order to be promoted to jounin rank.

The chakra paper split into two as I sent my chakra into it.

Wind, then it was.

It was sort of a good thing too, because Asuma-sensei also had a wind affinity, so he would be able to help me work on that.

"Wind, eh? That's a pretty rare one." He said.

Wind release was more of a short to mid-range offensive element that required strength and precision in order to cause the most damage.

Temari and Naruto were also wind users, if I remembered correctly. But yes, wind was an elemental affinity that was pretty rare, especially in the Fire Country.

"Oh this is perfect! Now you can also teach me elemental jutsu!" I exclaimed, grinning.

"Now, now kid. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. First you need to learn how to properly control and mold chakra."

I frowned and told him I could already do that.

Even though I had the mind of a nineteen year old, I still had the temper of a seven year old. I wanted to learn elemental jutsu, therefore I was going to learn it. Asuma didn't _have_ to teach me anything- I could probably learn by myself- but it was just so much _easier_ if he did.

"Fine," he reluctantly agreed. "Before I teach you any elemental jutsus, you have to be able to manipulate wind release. Try to manipulate your chakra to be as sharp and thin as possible."

I extended some of my chakra out of my body, like I would do with chakra threads, but instead formed it into the form of a piece of paper. I concentrated in making it as thin as possible.

"See my trench knives, kid? I infuse my wind chakra into my blades. It makes my blades deadly. I can cut through metals, rocks, you name it!"

"So if I infused my chakra into my kunai for example, it would amplify it's strength?"

"They need to be made with a special metal that can be infused with chakra. These trench knives work nicely. Swords are good as well."

Interesting.

I decided I would ask my mom tonight for a list of weapons that would work well with wind release and have her order me some.

We spent the remainder of the day learning how to infuse chakra into an object.

I had always been able to extend my chakra out of my body or focus it in a certain area. I had never actually tried to infuse it in an object.

Tree climbing only required you to focus your chakra in your feet, so you could stick to the tree. My chakra never had to penetrate the tree, just stick to its surface.

Infusing my chakra into an object was difficult at first, my chakra refusing to penetrate the metal. I suppose that inserting my chakra into another living thing was a lot more difficult.

Like medical ninjutsu.

Sometimes your chakra didn't mix well with the person you were healing and could even cause chakra poisoning. You also had to be careful of the amount you inserted into the patient's body; too much could further damage their was a reason the Mystical Palm Jutsu was classified as an A-rank jutsu.

The difficulty of the matter just made me want to practice more.

I had to get this right in order to become stronger.

.

* * *

.

My mom had a special sword ordered for me from an old man from the Land of Iron who specialized in swords.

The guy apparently only made swords for accomplished and skilled ninja but my mom had good connections and convinced him in making me one.

I didn't get it until three months later but it certainly was worth the wait. The sword was double-eddged, pretty long, but very light. The hilt was a dark blue and provided a good grip.

During the next months to come, Mom would teach me how to use it and Asuma how to infuse my chakra in it.

I never brought my sword to school, not seeing why I would have to or how it would benefit me.

I continued my arduous taijutsu training with Asuma as well, wanting to become as fast as I could. Speed, in my opinion, still was of great importance to me.

I also convinced him into teaching me some elemental jutsus (though it had taken some bribery).

The one he had me working on was _Wind Style: Gale Palm_. You only had to clap to execute the jutsu, but Asuma-sensei managed to knock me over. I had always thought that the greater number of hand seals, the stronger the attack. But this just proved me wrong.

The Gale Palm in question, compressed and transformed wind into a powerful gale. The attack varied in strength depending on the wielder's chakra control. Asuma-sensei told me that this attack could even enable you to wound- even kill- if you mastered it. The attack also became deadlier if you combined projectile weapons- like shuriken- to it.

Now that I thought about it, I couldn't have asked for a better elemental affinity. I was good handling weapons and having a wind affinity would heighten my abilities.

.

Mom taught me a lot about swords ever since I had acquired one- how to recognize a good blade and a poorly made one, what blades suited what kind of person, and _a lot_ more. Seriously, Mom could probably teach me more about weapons than any number of books could.

The first few times I had tried the technique, I only managed to create a small gust of wind.

It was kind of pathetic.

Asuma-sensei told me not to worry as it was a C-rank technique and kids my age couldn't really manage any C-rank techniques just yet. It was apparently a huge feat that I could manage what I had done.

Asuma-sensei just encouraged me to work harder at it.

I started practicing the jutsu at any sort of occasion that presented itself; at home, while I was walking back from school, sometimes even during lunch hours in a secluded part of the playground surrounded by trees.

I was left mentally and physically exhausted by the end of it, my mother told me I would have to miss training with Asuma a couple of times to replenish me strength.

This upset me greatly, but I knew I couldn't defy my mom's wishes.

I practiced my chakra strings in bed, silently cursing my luck.

The hours, no minutes, wasted lying in bed, aggravated me. Surely, training taijutsu wouldn't hurt. But nooo, Mom wouldn't let me get out of bed.

I continued practicing afterwards, but in a way in which I would still have a sufficient amount of chakra left.

I never wanted to be forced to miss training again.

.

* * *

.

My bonds with the other students were practically inexistent at this point, with the exception of Chouji, Shika and Hasuo.

I rarely addressed anyone first and responded to my peers with the shortest answers I could come up with.

People labeled me as a snob seeing I only talked to members of Konoha's biggest clans, the Akimichi and the Nara.

This was completely untrue. I didn't talk to Sasuke and his family clan was of much greater importance than the Nara or the Akimichi combined. Nor did I talk to Hinata, who was a Hyuuga. I didn't talk to Ino and she was part of the Yamanaka clan, which was on the same level of importance as Shikamaru and Chouji's families.

One of the main reasons I didn't like talking to the other students were because I found them so damn annoying. We weren't on the same intellectual level and conversing with them was mentally tiring. Though I guess saying it like that did make me a sort of snob.

It just couldn't be helped.

Everyone by now had accepted my cold behavior and had dismissed it as normal.

It didn't stop many rumors to go around about me.

Most girls thought of me as 'weird'. I only hung around _guys_. Guys that, in their opinion, weren't even cute.

Talking about 'cute' guys, Sasuke Uchiha was probably the most talked about subject among girls.

He wasn't even in our class, and I had to hear about them fawning over him.

Every. Single. Day.

There were of course, older guys at the Academy that were cute _and _good shinobi that the girls talked about when they felt like talking about something other than Sasuke's shiny, beautiful hair.

These were rare moments that had to be cherished.

One name I recognized was Neji's.

Genius prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, they called him.

Personally, I didn't see what they liked about Sasuke and Neji's uptight and stoic personalities, but whatever.

.

"Sasuke Uchiha..." I muttered his name one day, while Shikamaru and Chouji were eating beside me.

"Oh no, not you too!" exclaimed Chouji, groaning.

"I thought you were one of the least troublesome girls," complained Shikamaru.

I shot them a look.

"I don't _like_ him, if that's what you meant," I said, rolling my eyes. "I was only wondering if he was better than me... How strong is he?"

I wasn't in his class so I didn't know how advanced he was.

"He's this year's top student," muttered Chouji, annoyed. "He's apparently a genius. Top of the year in ninjutsu _and_ taijutsu. He's better than _Hasuo_."

Yeah, I knew that much. Sasuke was Hasuo's main reason why he worked so hard. I knew he hated being second best to Sasuke.

"He's not any smarter than Shikamaru-kun than I am," I retorted. "And he probably isn't as strong as you Chouji."

"You're grades are better than Shika-kun's and mine," pointed out Chouji, munching on his chips.

That was true. Because of Shikamaru's laziness, he had one of the lowest grades of the class along with Chouji.

"Grades don't mean anything," I said again, looking up at the sky (a habit I had picked up thanks to Shikamaru). "For example Shikamaru-kun is one of the smartest people in this entire village."

We both looked at Shikamaru, observing him.

He looked uncomfortable after my praise. He muttered something about 'troublesome'.

"Yeah, I bet Shika is going to become a great ninja," beamed Chouji.

Despite his smiling face, his chakra felt sad, which worried me.

"Shikamaru-kun will become the smartest ninja and you, Chouji-kun, will also become a great ninja, one of the strongest." I affirmed.

It was supposed to reassure him and I knew my words were true.

"Thank you, Ren-chan," smiled Chouji.

"What will you become then?" asked Shikamaru.

"I don't know," I said after a slight pause. "It seems I can see everyone's future but mine. What will become of me?.. If all goes well I'll become one of the strongest ninjas in the village and kick Sasuke's ass!"

They all nodded, thinking that it would be nice to have someone beat Sasuke for a change.

I had noticed they both had placed a great deal of trust in me that I didn't feel I deserved. But I liked spending time with them. Their presence was calming and made me feel safe, which I think had to do with their chakra.

The first time I had gone over to Shikamaru's house, it had been to drop off a book he had left in class. You couldn't just walk into a clan compound, but after explaining the situation, a girl had lead me over to his house.

His mom had opened the door and made me come in. She ended up serving me tea and insisted I stay over for a while longer.

Shikamaru hadn't been exactly pleased by this, but not that annoyed either. He preferred not arguing with his mother and led me outside in his yard.

He took out a game of shogi which got me interested.

I vaguely remembered that Asuma-sensei had never been able to beat Shikamaru at a game of shogi during the Naruto series.

"I know you love all that battle tactics stuff so I figured you might like shogi. At least, that's what my dad said. We'll learn it together since I've never played it before," he sighed taking out a shogi intruction manual.

We looked over all the rules and regulations. It sort of reminded me of chess but this game had a much larger game tree complexity because of the use of drops- in shougi, once you captured an opponents piece you could use them as your own.

The board was a 9x9 grid and each player had a set consisting of twenty pieces.

The game lasted about two and a half hours, probably less. We both liked taking our time calculating different strategies so really most of the time was used up thinking and plotting.

With Shikamaru I was forced to mentally think up my strategic family tree thinking method. I had to plan at _least _twenty steps ahead _mentally_. Usually I used paper to sketch it out. Though I supposed all this was good exercise for a real battle situation.

He won. It didn't surprise me, but I had hoped that _maybe_...

"You're pretty good."

Psh. Playing against him was hard. I couldn't even allow myself a feint. One careless move and he had you cornered.

"I told you you were a genius," I had said, laying on my back to observe the clouds. "I won't ever beat you at shogi."

It was the sad truth.

.

Chouji was also my best friend.

He really did have a kind heart. It was kind of sad that people didn't really approach him, besides Shikamaru and I. He was worth ten times more than that idiot of Kora that pulled pranks on people all the time.

Five kids were surrounding Chouji and Shikamaru one afternoon.

I had been looking for them for a good ten minutes and had managed to find them thanks to their chakra signals.

"Give us your lunch!"

… Seriously? _Lunch_? It was like high school all over again.

I watched as they snatched Shika and Chouji's lunches away.

"You should be thanking us. Seriously, I'm surprised your mother keeps on feeding you, you should be on a diet," one I recognized as Kora, sneered.

I stepped in.

"Why are you guys stealing their lunches?" I said, frowning.

"R- Ren-chan!" The eldest of the five stuttered, his face turning red.

"Give them back their lunches!" I demanded.

"Y- yes Ren-chan!"

"But Kora-"

"Just do what she says!"

They scrambled away.

"Arigato Ren-chan!" said Chouji. "I don't know what I would have done without you! This was my last bag of chips for the day!"

"Guys, don't just let them take it from you," I sighed. "If you don't stand up for yourself, they'll think you guys are weak and take advantage of you guys. That's completely false. You guys are some of the strongest students in our year!"

Chouji smiled shyly and went back on munching on his chips. I smiled back at him and led the way to the hill we were supposed to meet at earlier.

All three of us were really close and understood what the other was feeling without having to ask. I didn't spend that much time with them outside of school because after school on weekdays I had training with Asuma-sensei.

A lot of the times though, they were kept after class for detention. Shikamaru and Chouji did have the lowest scores in class. They often got held back for detention because Shikamaru kept sleeping or watching clouds while Chouji was caught one time too many eating snacks.

I offered to tutor them, but they refused- Shikamaru stating that it was too much trouble.

_Of course._

How typical.

.

* * *

.


	8. Chapter 7: Unsatisfaction

If you got a second chance at life, what would you do? My life as a ninja. OC.

.

* * *

- Chapter 7: Unsatisfaction -

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* * *

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"There is no greater sorrow than to recall in misery the time when we were happy." -Dante

.

I had just recently turned eight when I first saw _him_.

.

My second year at the Academy passed by rather quickly. I had gotten top marks in the written portion and average marks everywhere else. I had made sure of that.

It was summer and I had dressed to accomadate the blazing heat of Konoha. From what I heard, the heat wasn't as bad as it was in Suna this time of year, but still.

The cream sundress was short and frilly and so very impractical.

Cream seemed to be the only color I had in my closet now that I thought about it. I mostly wore that color because it didn't clash ridiculously with my hair. Black also worked but the mere thought of wearing black in the middle of summer seemed unfathomable.

.

I was coming back from the Konoha Library and had taken a detour in order to pick up my new order of kunoichi clothes, since the ones I had were getting small.

It was almost dusk and the streets were practically empty. Nobody liked staying outside in the heat.

I was heading home and was feeling particularly happy because my father was supposed to be arriving back from a mission tonight. I hadn't seen him in three days.

But then I saw _him_ and halted abruptly.

I recognized him immediately. Even though I had never seen him before in the village, I knew it was him.

I knew it was him.

I had no doubt in my mind.

His aura, his eyes, his posture... I _knew_.

His identity was so blatantly obvious that he might as well have had a flashing sign over his head.

As if the fact that he was carrying Sasuke on his shoulders wasn't a dead giveaway...

Though, this meant he hadn't killed off his family yet.

I completely disreguarded this part of the storyline! How could I have forgotten such a tragic thing would happen?

The fact that we were walking on the same street told me that the turning point of Sasuke's life hadn't happened yet. Though the thought wasn't very reassuring.

Was I supposed to do something about it since I knew what was going to happen? I probably could to some extent but the results of the massacre would stay the same.

If I told someone I knew, it would definitely change the storyline. I would also be preventing the prevention of a civil war. Which would in turn start a great ninja war. If that wasn't enough, the elders would probably have me and whoever I told executed.

Psh. I so didn't want to die by the hands of those cynical bastards.

Itachi

..

My thoughts riveted back to him.

If my calculations were correct, Sasuke would soon be turning eight as well, which meant the Uchiha massacre would happen soon. Too soon.

I clenched my jaw. I probably wouldn't be able to see Sasuke smile like that ever again.

It pained me to know what he was going to go through but I _knew_ I couldn't do anything about it. I just couldn't.

I focused my attention on Itachi.

He was practically the same as I remembered him from the manga and anime. He was tall, rather slender, his hair dark and in a ponytail, but what stood out most was his face. Well, more precisely, his _eyes_.

Shinobi were trained to appear impassive. Many of the jounin I ran into around Konoha had similar masks of indifference.

Blank.

But his _eyes_.

It was probably a huge mistake to look into his eyes, but for some reason, his dark eyes entranced me. Seemed to pull me in.

I hadn't ever seen someone's eyes look so expressionless. Many had stoic faces but there was always something in their eyes that gave them away. But Itachi's eyes were as unreadable as his face.

Even though his chakra was screaming otherwise. Chakra never lied.

Suddenly everything seemed to slow down. The moment I had focused into reading his chakra, I had no control over my actions anymore.

I panicked. This had never happened before.

Never.

I didn't really know what was happening, except that all I saw was Itachi's eyes and Sasuke's wide smile and -

His _chakra._

Lonely, dark, and confused. It was being eaten away by guilt and sadness.

I _felt_ his chakra, as if it had suddenly become my own. It felt conflicted and helpless. _I_ was sad and confused. I was angry. I was everything. And it overwhelmed me as I felt the package of new clothes slip out of my hands.

All I saw were his eyes.

They met mine.

He probably had sensed me long before I had even made the turn onto the street but hadn't acknowledged my presence until now. This wasn't something I realized until much later.

All coherent thoughts were foreign to me.

I took a step back, trying to regain composure of myself. But I couldn't stop the tears.

Tears? I was _crying_?

I felt so cold all of a sudden. Trembling, I covered my mouth with one hand, trying not to outright sob.

I hadn't cried since I was a baby. To be seen in public crying was utterly humiliating.

"Nii-san?" questioned Sasuke, finally noticing me.

I stared at him, horrified. I hoped for his sake he wouldn't go around telling people he had seen me crying.

"Do you know her?" said Itachi, slowly approaching me.

I briefly looked at Itachi, avoiding his eyes.

"Yeah, she attends the Academy. Purple hair.. she must be Ren Tanaka. I've heard about her... Why is she _crying_?"

Sasuke looked at me, as if trying to figure it out himself.

Itachi put Sasuke down much to his protests, and turned to face me.

I was terrified. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, like one of those sappy romantic movies.

I tried to regain my normal indifferent composure but that seemed impossible at the moment.

Stop crying. Stop crying. Stop crying.

A small part of me wanted to crawl into a corner.

"Tanaka? I know her father. We should bring her home."

Sasuke grunted but didn't object.

"Are you hurt?" Itachi asked me, crouching down to look at me.

I was obviously distressed, but not physically hurt. He was a trained shinobi- he would know. Why was he asking then?

Were those two choices the only options he had? Kill his family or help attack Konoha? What a horrible decision.

Guilt.

All I could do was _feel_.

I wanted to punch everything in my way.

I wanted to make everything stop. I wanted it to stop.

"Stop," I gasped in a short breath. "Make it stop."

I clenched my eyes shut and took out a kunai, hurling it at Itachi.

I widened my eyes as Sasuke yelled something.

Make it stop, I cried.

Strong hands gripped my arms keeping me in place. I looked into red swirling orbs until I saw blackness.

.

.

.

.

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* * *

.

.

.

.

.

I sat up quickly.

Everything was white again, like that first day into this world.

Hospital.

Many things seemed out of place though. The room was big and white. No windows, just a door and one plain single bed.

I looked down to see I was still in my dress.

I tried to remember how I had landed in here.

Red.

I got up and made my way to the door only to find out it was locked.

I frowned.

I was in a locked room. Why? I struggled to comprehend.

Not finding the answers I wanted, I frowned some more.

Bah, locked doors weren't exactly hard to break out of. I sent out some of my chakra into the key hole and formed it accordingly.

When I heard a click, I turned the handle and stepped out.

Hospital.

I walked around carefully.

Why had someone locked me in the hospital?

Red.

I widened my eyes feeling a chakra loom over me. I looked up.

"You're supposed to be in that room," the person said, jumping down from the ceiling.

I didn't recognize him or his chakra signature. He was tall, dark haired, good looking.

"I ..don't know you," I said, unsure.

Chakra that resembled a crow. Didn't ring a bell. I knew an eagle, a pigeon and a canari but no crow.

But then this meant I wasn't put in that creepy room by mistake.

"No, I guess you don't. I'm Shishui Uchiha," he said, smiling.

"Uchiha? I've heard of you.." I said, closing my eyes.

Shisui Uchiha. Itachi's best friend. Known for the Body Flicker Technique. Had a powerful Mangekyou Sharingan. Died.

I opened my eyes, frowning.

"I've heard of you too," He grinned.

Did Uchihas grin? I had no idea.

"I didn't hear very good things concerning you," I said frowning, trying to get past him.

"Oh? Well I have to say I haven't heard very good things about you either."

This was surprising. What had I done that was considered bad? My grades weren't spectacular, but nothing to laugh at either.

"You attacked my cousin this afternoon."

I stopped in my tracks.

"Excuse me?"

"You threw a kunai at my cousin," he repeated, serious.

"Sasuke? I've never fought Sasuke before.." I said, looking up at Shisui.

"Not Sasuke," He said. "You threw a kunai at _Itachi_!"

He started chuckling.

Itachi?

"That wasn't a very funny joke," I said, looking at him weirdly.

Did Uchiha joke?

"Oh, I wasn't joking. You really did throw a kunai at him. Sasuke said you were posessed, that's why you were locked up. For security measures. You were supposed to be questioned tomorrow morning when you woke up."

Red.

I started to remember and frowned some more.

"Though I have to give you some credit kid. Not even Sasuke's thrown a kunai at Itachi!" Shisui said, laughing some more. "When I heard the story I had to see what kind of crazy kid you were."

Did Uchiha laugh?

Shisui confused me.

He was so different from Itachi and what I knew Sasuke would turn out to be. He was different from everything people said about Uchihas. In fact, if he hadn't told me his name I wouldn't even have thought he belonged to the Uchiha clan.

"You seem pretty normal though," he said, observing me. "Purple hair aside."

"Is normal a bad thing?" I asked, walking again.

"I don't know, you tell me!"

He disappeared and reappeared several feet in front of me.

"They say you're pretty good at the Body Flicker.." I said, looking at me. "How come?"

"Oh, you must have some pretty good sources," he grinned, appearing right in front of me, causing me to stop. "I eat and breathe this technique. I'm faster than fast. I can travel miles in a flash."

He laughed a bit at his stupid rhyme.

"That's impossible," I said frowning. "You can't travel _miles _in a flash unless you're teleporting."

"Well believe it kid," he grinned again, rejoicing in the idea that he could show off. "I'm the best."

How had Itachi befriended him? They were so different. Sort of reminded me of the Naruto/Sasuke dynamic. One was a goof off, the other was a silent brooder.

"Oh, still don't believe me?"

No.

"No," I said, walking past him again.

"Tell you what," he said, appearing next to me. "I'll show you what I can do one day when you don't have school."

I looked at him, puzzled. Did Uchiha interact with non-Uchiha? Didn't they have a superiority complex?

"I.. well.." I said, faltering.

"Cool, see you later then," he said dissapearing again.

I was left speechless.

Uchiha were weird, that's what.

.

"Do you realize what they're saying?" Mom said frantically during dinner. "You're pretty lucky Itachi-san didn't press any charges against you."

"Charges? You can press charges against someone who throws a kunai at you?" I asked, frowning. We lived in a ninja village for Kami's sake!

"You can," Dad replied. "Most people don't."

"I don't see why everyone's so hot and bothered. It was just a _kunai_," commented Tadashi, after swallowing a particularly large mouthful of rice. "It's not like she butchered him or anything. Really now."

Dad, sighed "Then there's all this talk about you being posessed-"

"Ha!" interrupted Tadashi. "Ren's not the one with the creepy red eyes! They're like a walking horror movie. And can you believe some girls are into that kind of stuff? Talk about kinky-"

"But they ran some tests at the hospital, and you seem fine. We haven't noticed any unusual behavior, but if we do, we have to report it immediately," finished Dad, ignoring Tadashi.

"Not that we think all that stuff is true," added Mom. "But safety protocol, and all. It makes everyone feel safer."

I nodded, taking all this in.

I still couldn't believe I threw a kunai at Itachi. I didn't know what was more embarassing, me throwing a kunai at him or crying in front of him. Ack.

"Wow, you're going to be the talk of Konoha for days," smirked Tadashi, laughing. "All his fan girls are going to hunt you down with their pitchforks!"

"Then why are you laughing?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Oh, I'm not worried. You'll probably put them right in their place," he grinned patting me on the head. "You go do that while I cheer for you from the sidelines."

"Please don't," scolded Mom. "We don't want them to report her as posessed."

"Pah!" snorted Tadashi, waving dismissively. "I haven't been able to see Ren fight in a while and this will be a good opportunity."

Mom shook her head and looked upwards, while Dad smiled a little.

"It's true you two haven't sparred since you became a genin," he said.

"Being a genin is hard work!" said Tadashi, defending himself. "I take my job seriously you know."

"I'm sure," Mom and I said at the same time.

We all looked at each other before laughing.

.

* * *

.

School started again in September and my encounter with Itachi was long forgotten.

I hadn't seen Sasuke anywhere since my encounter with him weeks prior but then again, I didn't really want to either.

Luck was not on my side when I realized on the first day of school he was now in my class.

Great. _Just great_.

Sasuke was a constant reminder of _him_ and that day- something I had desperately tried to forget.

He ignored me- like he did with pretty much everyone else- but sometimes he did glare at me when I looked too long in his direction.

I was still in the top 10 percentile of my class, although I noticed with masked horror that Sakura Haruno had the same scores as me on the written portion.

She too apparently copied word for word the answers she memorized from the books. Now I was forced to actually develop my answers instead of just reciting from memory. Not that it was hard to do so, but just the thought of having the same grades as cotton candy over there...

I certainly didn't want to be tied with _her_ on the written portion of the exams. Nor with anyone else. The written part was the only time I allowed myself to show off what I knew in front of the others. Nobody was going to ruin that for me.

.

In taijutsu classes, I observed Sasuke. He was supposedly the best in our grade.

Well.. he certainly wasn't bad for an eight year old. Not bad at all.

Still, my training with Asuma-sensei had payed off and I was pretty certain I was better. Especially in speed.

For hand to hand combat, we were usually paired into groups of two and I always chose Hasuo as my partner. Hasuo was second best and was always trying to beat Sasuke. Although I think he would have preferred to be paired with Sasuke to test his skills, he agreed to spar with me. I 'wasn't a bad replacement'.

I picked Hasuo because he was the most challenging to spar out of all my classmates, excluding Sasuke (no way was I going to spar with him after the whole incident). I let him win a match every two matches. Sometimes I let him win twice in a row so he wouldn't notice the score pattern.

Chouji and Shika paired off together. I might have chosen to spar with one of them except for the fact that they worked best as a pair. They were compatible and understood each other without talking. Not only that, but they trusted each other with their own lives.

If I had paired with say, Shika instead, where would Chouji have gone? Other people in the class didn't get along too well with him. He was much better off with Shika.

Kiba was also pretty decent in taijutsu. Although his moves were rash and easy to read, he wasn't lacking speed and strength.

Hinata was also very good at taijutsu. She used stances I had never seen before. She was probably trained in her clan compound by her father or someone.

I smiled.

At least _some _girls were getting trained.

One day, Iruka-sensei decided that we were 'skilled' enough to use real weapons. Heh. Probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life, that was.

He stepped up, shuriken in hand.

"Shuriken are very dangerous weapons so be careful. You all stay behind the person that's throwing, get it? Take it like this," he said, holding up the shuriken in his hand so we could see. "And aim it at one the wooden targets."

Actually, shuriken rarely killed anyone. They were dangerous yes, but they were mostly used to distract the opponent or slow them down. Though I supposed they could kill. They were pointy jabs of metal after all, and taking on in they eye probably wouldn't be painless.

I observed the targets. The targets were situated pretty close to us in my opinion. Not only were they close but they were big, so the chance of hitting one would be greater.

"That's too _easy_!" shouted Naruto, voicing my thoughts.

Naruto wasn't as horrible and incompetent as the anime had suggested. He was decent in taijutsu although he tended to act before thinking, which is why he lost his sparring matches most of the time. He also was easily riled up, and some students used that to their advantage when sparring against him.

Sasuke went up first after Iruka's demonstration, Hasuo right behind him.

They both had flawlessly implanted their shuriken into the targets, making all the fan girls squeal.

"Sakura you're up," said Iruka.

I looked at her carefully. Was she good at this kind of stuff at her age? I couldn't remember.

.. Apparently not, although she had come pretty close.

I missed my target as well, though my miss had been intentional. I watched as the other children filed through, most missing their target.

After Naruto's turn however, everything went downhill.

He had almost suceeded in beheading Sasuke which had resulted in an uproar from the fangirls. He had been chased by angry girls all over the school training grounds before Iruka-sensei managed to calm them all down.

.

We started to learn more jutsus too, although I had already learned the ones they taught us. I had been hoping to learn something new...

I sighed.

I also signed up for special kunoichi classes.

They mainly taught us in kunoichi classes how to be better at infiltration, teaching us about other clans and country customs. They taught us skills, such as flower arranging and cooking, that would allow us to blend in during missions.

I took up an interest in cooking, weird as it was.

Recently, they had taught us about the art of seduction- a powerful weapon for kunoichi. I took notes and observed demonstrations but doubted any of that crap would come in handy soon. Seriously though... Teaching us the correct way to bat your eyelashes... _Hmph_.

.

"Detention again, huh?" I asked from the window.

"Shut up!" barked Kiba, who looked up from the paper he was writing.

"That's got to be the third time this week," I commented. "Iruka-sensei gave you guys textbook pages to copy this time, huh?"

"Shut up!"

This time the groan was unanimous. I burst into a fit of giggles.

"Anyways, I'm here to rescue Shika and Chouji!" I announced, pushing the window open wider.

"Huh?" asked Kiba. "Why them and not me?"

"I like to play favorites," I answered climbing into the classroom with the copies and placing them on Iruka-sensei's desk. "Anyways, studying will do you some good Kiba."

He wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean.

"Thanks Ren-chan!," grinned Chouji, jumping out of the window landing next to me, Shikamaru following.

"Thanks," nodded Shikamaru.

We snuck out of the Academy grounds and headed towards the dango shop. Normally, I would have let Chouji choose the place, but I had a craving for dango. That stuff was so good.

We sat down in a corner and ordered the usual.

"You really love that stuff don't you?" asked Shikamaru, eyeing the empty plate.

"What a silly question," I said, pocketing the barren dango sticks.

"Is that _Ren_?" I heard from behind me.

"Someone's calling you," informed Chouji, looking over my shoulder.

I sighed in defeat.

Crow.

"Wow, you like dango too?" Shisui said, appearing next to me. "Man, I haven't had this stuff in ages."

Of all the places he had to pop up...

"It's cool that I found you here," he said. "I just finished a B-rank mission yesterday, so I'm on break until Monday. Tomorrow's Saturday, so you don't have school. Want to train then?"

Train?

I quirked a brow.

I had thought he was just going to body flicker everywhere just to annoy me but if he was willing to actually train me then...

"Train? Tomorrow?" I asked, surprised.

What a perfect sense of timing. Asuma-sensei was gone this weekend on a mission.

"It's a date!" He winked before disappearing.

"What a creep," I muttered, massaging my temples.

Wasn't he like 17? I was eight. Those kind of jokes were nasty.

"A date?" gulped Chouji, turning red.

"He was joking, but as you have just witnessed, Shisui's jokes aren't very funny."

"Was that an Uchiha?," asked Shikamaru, though I suspected he already knew the answer.

I nodded.

Shisui had his clan symbol printed on the back of his shirt for one.

"You're training with an _Uchiha_?" asked Chouji, eyes wide. "But I thought they were all mad at you, for you know, _that_."

The incident wasn't talked about any more, but that still didn't stop some random people in the streets to give me weird looks from time to time.

"Oh they are," I nodded again. "But Shisui's weird."

But if he was going to train me, then I didn't really have any objections.

.

* * *

.

The thing was, he never said _where _we were going train. So I just decided to make a detour towards the Uchiha compound to see if he was there.

This was, of course, a very bad idea.

The Uchiha clan compound was more secluded than the Nara's. Bigger, as well, but they were a lot more hostile and didn't seem adamant in letting me enter.

"I'm just looking for Shisui," I sighed rejected, walking away. "What a bothersome situation."

I knew his chakra signature now, and maybe if he was a normal person, I would have been able to find him. But with that Body Flicker technique of his, pin-pointing his chakra source would be very difficult.

Honestly, I wouldn't have even bothered, but he had promised to train me. Training meant getting stronger and I was all for that.

"Looking for me?" I heard him say, appearing next to me. "I was at your house a while ago but you weren't there."

"You went to my house?" I asked, widening my eyes.

I didn't want this guy just poofing at my place whenever he wanted!

"Yeah, yeah," he nodded, distracted, looking somewhere behind us.

We walked in silence towards the closest training grounds.

There were two- whom I assumed were genins- sparring in the far right corner.

"This place is cramped," grunted Shisui, looking around frowning.

"So, what are you going to teach me?" I asked, interested.

He was Shisui of the Body Flicker. Jounin level, maybe part of ANBU. He was bound to know some useful moves. The two genin seemed to recognize him, because they kept staring at him from the corner of their eyes.

"I'm not going to teach you anything," he said, waving at the two genin who reddened at the gesture.

After seeing my expression, he added in all seriousness, "Not yet anyway. I have to see how bad you are first."

I frowned.

Uchiha were known for being blunt. Well mannered and everything, but blunt. They had a pretty bad reputation, along with the Hyuuga, for being snobs.

"But first," he said, grinning. "Climb on my back."

Pause.

"Excuse me?"

"Climb on my back," he repeated.

"Why would I want to do that?" I protested, taking a step back, as he turned his back towards me.

"I'll train you okay? But first things first. I told you I was going to show you the extent of my technique, so I'm here to keep my word."

"So you _will _train me?" I asked, eyebrows raising.

"Yes! Now get on my back!" he said impatiently.

I jumped and landed lightly on his back. His black shirt scratched my face as I latched my arms around his neck. He smelled of clean laundry and the forest.

"Don't you need your hands to use your body flicker technique?" I asked, when his arms hooked under my knees, holding me up.

"Hand seals are for amateurs," he scoffed. "Watch this!"

I felt him gather chakra towards his feet- much more than the jutsu required.

Everything around me seemed to blur in a swirl of colors until stilling once again.

Rocks.

"So, what do you think?" he asked, letting me get off his back.

My feet touched an uneven crumbly surface.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking around.

I didn't recognize this place at all, which only meant we were outside of Konoha's village walls. This much, I was sure of. I had spent hours exploring Konoha and this place didn't ring a bell.

"5 miles north of Konoha," Shisui said, sitting on a large boulder.

5 _miles_? Impossible. Even the fastest runner wouldn't be able to run 5 miles in ten seconds. Right?

"Wait," I said, finally registering what he said. "We _left _Konoha? Are you crazy?"

I looked around frantically.

People couldn't just leave and come as they pleased in a hidden village. You had to go through security and have all you papers in check _and _have a valid reason to leave or come. Sometimes you had to go through a debriefing before being allowed to enter the village. Depending on the village, the security was more or less tight. I had heard rumors that in order to enter the Village Hidden in the Clouds you were held in quarantine for minimum two weeks.

"Chill out," he said, amused. "I've done this a bajillion times. This place is better to train anyway."

I continued to look around.

I couldn't sense any chakra signals at all, which meant we were in the middle of nowhere. I had never left the village before, and the idea of being stuck with Shisui Uchiha in a rocky desert wasn't very appealing. Oh, I'm sure many girls would have cut their hair off to be alone with an Uchiha of the male gender, but I wasn't one of them.

"Tell me what you can do," he said. "Any cool jutsus?"

"I learned all the ones they teach at the Academy," I said slowly. "I know a wind jutsu Asuma-sensei taught me... That's about it."

I hadn't fully mastered the wind jutsu yet, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

"Well that's not very impressive at all," drawled Shisui after a moment of silence.

"Well, in my defence, I'm only eight!" I protested, feeling insulted.

"Excuses, excuses," he tsked. "You don't need to know many difficult jutsus, the trick is to just build up on the simple ones you already know."

"Like the Body Flicker Technique?"

"Exactly!" beamed Shisui appearing right in front of me.

I noticed for the first time that his face was perfect. Sculpted, defined, smooth. All the signature Uchiha genetic traits.

"So you're going to teach me how to 'build up' on my Body Flicker technique?" I asked, taking a step away from him.

"I could," he said, flickering somewhere behind me. "What techniques do you know again?"

I listed all of them. I didn't have a big inventory of jutsus, but compared to my classmates, this was a lot. I had always prided myself in my jutsus- my acomplishments, my hard work.

"As I said, not very impressive at all," he said, appearing in front of me shaking his head. "How good are you in taijutsu?"

"Good for my age," I grunted, a bit insulted.

Shisui took an exasperated breath.

"Why did you offer to train me anyway?" I asked. "I didn't know Uchiha trained with non-Uchiha."

"In an apple tree, the apples might look similar but won't necessarily taste the same," he said. "I never wanted to train you, to be honest."

I opened my mouth in shock. He had promised to train-

"All I wanted to do was see the kid who threw a kunai at Itachi. You should know everyone back at the compound is outraged. I found the thing hilarious," he smiled. "Just wanted to see who you were, what you looked like. Then I found out you had escaped from your solitary confinement! How did you do that anyway? There weren't any windows and the walls and door are impossible to break through. At least for someone of your caliber."

I blinked a couple times not knowing how to take that.

"I just picked the lock with my chakra," I said. "Sometimes, when I want to break my friends out of detention and the windows happen to be locked, I pick the locks."

"With your chakra? Not stupid," he said approvingly. "Body Replacement Technique. Let's start with that."

Training with Shisui Uchiha... Well I wouldn't ever recommend him as an Academy instructor. Half of the times he kept on cracking jokes- not very funny ones at that. If he wasn't joking off, he was busy making fun of my lack of skill.

The Body Replacement Technique. Useful technique. Shisui said this technique should become second nature for chuunin. It could save your life.

Usually, you replaced your body with an object. To build from there, he had me practice using his clone instead of a replacement log. It was a lot trickier- the clone was ten times heavier and didn't move as fast as the usual log.

I finally got the hang of it after a while.

"Wow, that took forever," commented Shisui.

"Not everyone's born with the Sharingan," I grunted.

"Oh trust me, I would've learned the technique faster than that even if I was born blind," he deadpanned.

The next part of the 'build up' was to cast a genjutsu over your replacement -log, clone, whichever- to make the opponent believe you were still there.

"We haven't learned genjutsu yet," I said frowning and ingnored his groaning.

"What? What are they teaching you guys at school then? How to make proper flower arrangements?"

"They did teach us that," I said reluctantly. "But it's all useful things to know if I want to be part of the infiltration and reconnaissance squad."

"You want to do that?" he asked, surprised.

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"Well you would have to dye your hair because with that color, you'll be spotted from a mile a way!" he laughed, patting my head.

"Anyway," he continued. "Casting a genjutsu isn't that hard. All you need is a lot of imagination and skill. Skill can always be worked on- and in your case you should work on it a lot. Imagination not so much. You either have it or you don't."

"Right, so how do you cast it?"

"The one I'm having you do today will affect anybody in a five feet radius. The better you get a genjutsu, the wider the range and the stronger it will be," he explained. "I'm not expecting much from you, but here are the hand seals."

Imagination.

I've never considered myself to have a lot of imagination in my past life. Now I wasn't so sure. I mean, I had after all, imagined myself an entirely new life in an imaginary world. That was a bucket of imagination right there.

I cast the genjutsu of myself over a rock.

"Not too bad," said Shisui. "I mean it's obvious that it's a genjutsu, but at least the thing looks like you."

"Thanks," I said dryly.

I was getting used to Shisui's snide remarks. His words weren't actually filled with any malice and that's probably the reason why I didn't mind as much as I probably should have.

"Anyways we should probably get back to Konoha," he said, looking up at the sky. "It's getting late."

We brought us right outside of my house in a mere couple of seconds.

"Thanks again for training me," I said, feeling a little awkward.

"It was quite fun actually," he said, black eyes dancing. "Keep on working on your genjutsu and building up on what you already know."

"I will," I promised, opening the door and stepping inside. "Oh, and remember to stay safe."

"Don't worry about me kid," he smiled. "I can take care of myself."

I forced a quiet laugh before closing the door behind me and frowning, feeling guilty.

He was going to die because I was too scared to do anything about it.

What could I do anyway?

I couldn't do anything for him, I tried to convince myself.

But the stomach sinking feeling reminded me of the truth for the remainder of the night- that behind all the jutsus and speed and strength, all I was was a coward.

.

* * *

.


	9. Chapter 8: Disconsolate

If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?

.

* * *

- Chapter 8: Disconsolate -

.

* * *

.

"Education is the best provision for the journey to old age." -Aristotle

.

One day I decided to ask Dad to cast a genjutsu on me, so I could practice how to dispel it.

I already knew how to cast genjutsus, but I had never learned how to dispel one.

He surprisingly agreed and I suddenly found myself on a bridge in the middle of a pond of purple water lilies- the ones I had been named after.

The jutsu calmed me and I thought about staying under its influence just so I could be in peace.

It took me several long minutes but I finally was able to dispel the genjutsu by using one of the seven basic techniques- _Kai_.

We were only taught this one in two years but I had read about it anyway.

In order to dispel genjutsu, you had to first stop the flow of your chakra entirely and release an even stronger flow of chakra to break the opponents chakra flow. The hardest part was to release the energy to dispel the jutsu although for me that wasn't the case. I had a lot more trouble stopping my chakra flow. It was an odd and discomforting feeling.

Now that I knew what to do in order to dispel a jutsu I practiced what I had done a little everyday, eventually asking my Dad to cast stronger genjutsus at me.

.

* * *

.

"Shisui," I said, on one of the rare afternoons he wasn't on duty. "How do you break out of a genjutsu cast by a Sharingan."

"Hmm," he said after a while. "I suppose it's like breaking out of a normal genjutsu, except you have to put in a lot more chakra to disrupt it. You can't really break out of a genjutsu cast by an advanced Sharingan unless you're an Uchiha with a Sharingan. At least I don't think so. I've never seen someone break out of one, but it might be possible."

"Greaat," I sighed. "So what if Itachi wants to stick me in a genjutsu to avenge himself? I'll be stuck forever in a genjutsu, right? Not a very pretty picture."

"Don't worry about Itachi. We sort of made a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"It's a secret," he said, winking at me.

I turned my head away, and grunted, annoyed that he wouldn't tell me.

With Shisui, he had me train on 'building up' and getting better. We finished building up on the Body Replacement Technique first. This was basically the shortened list of things that he had me work on:

-Replacing my body with a living thing

-Casting an illusionary jutsu over my replacement

- Replacing my body with an object/person that was far away from me

-Using the jutsu with no hand seals

The three first steps were a lot simpler than the last. Hand seals were used to help mold the chakra correctly. Without them, casting a jutsu was a lot more difficult. Easy jutsus- like the Body Replacement Technique- were easier to perform without hand seals than a C-rank technique like the Wind Gale.

With each hand seal, the chakra was molded in a different way. To execute the jutsu without the help of hand seals, the basic idea was to memorize the way you molded chakra. Then from there, you tried to mold the chakra without the hands.

When I formed the 'dog' seal for example, I concentrated chakra a certain way. And when I formed the 'tiger' seal, the chakra was molded a different way. Once you understood and memorized each different form, all you had to do was form it again, but without the hands.

So if the set of seals was Dog- Boar- Ram, I would concentrate, and try to form my chakra into the 'dog form', then the 'boar form', and then the 'ram form'.

It was difficult. Very difficult. The hand seals helped a lot with the forming of the chakra and without the hand seals, gathering chakra a specific way inside your body was hard. It was more of a approximation. And if your approximation wasn't right then the jutsu wouldn't work.

The next jutsu he had me practice was the Body Flicker Technique (He also had me work on the other jutsus like the Rope Escape Technique, the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique. )

I was a lot better at all my techniques now then before, although no where near Shisui's level. It was incredible how he did it, in all honesty.

Miles in a couple of seconds. With no hand seals.

It was impressive, to say the least, and my respect for Shisui increased. Although I would never, ever admit that out loud.

.

"Listen here squirt," he said after swallowing his third dango stick (after I had convinced him that dango was good for us both after 'all the work I had put him through'). "You're my little protegé now, understood? I've trained you pretty well, if I do say so myself."

"Um, thanks, I guess," I said, finishing up my own stick of dango.

"You should be able to pass the graduating exam at this point," he grinned. "With flying colors! Remember to mention it was all because of me, OK?"

"Why? Do you get some sort of prize?" I joked. "And there's no way I'm going to graduate _now_. I'm graduating when I'm twelve, like the rest of my class."

Shisui's eyes bulged. "But _why_? That's ridiculous. You're going to waste another four years at the shrimp school?"

"I don't want to graduate now," I frowned. "And if you ever try to recommend me, I'll fail the test. You can't force me if I don't want to."

Shisui frowned and groaned a little. "You're so annoying. Sasuke will end up graduating before you!"

"Sasuke?"

What did Sasuke have to do with any of this?

"Yeah, Sasuke," he said, waving a dango stick in my face disaprovingly.

"I know who he is," I said, swatting the dango stick away.

"Good. You better," he said, mouth full. "He's your rival."

"Since when?"

"Since you became my _protegé_, idiot," he said, shaking his head as if the answer had been evident.

"Does this have anything to do with Itachi?" I said, frowning.

"It has everything to do with Itachi," he said, crossing his arms to squint at me. "We're rivals. Therefore you and Sasuke will be rivals."

"I thought you were best friends with Itachi, not his rival," I contested.

"Best friends are always rivals," he said, reaching for another dango stick.

No, they weren't.

Shika and Chouji weren't my rivals... but then again Akimichis were too nice to start a rivalry and Naras were too cunning and lazy to take part in one.

"I'm not Sasuke's best friend..." I grunted. "So I don't know why I should start a rivalry with him."

"Yes, but you have to understand Ren," sighed Shisui. "Itachi's teaching Sasuke and I chose to teach you. If Sasuke's better than you, then that means that Itachi was a better teacher than me."

"I see," I said, going back to my dango.

"Whatever," Shisui sighed again.

"But on the bright side of things, you're wayyy ahead of Sasuke," he grinned again. "I spied on him yesterday and he's still learning his fire jutsu."

I nodded, a little proud. At least I knew that for now, my hard work had paid off. Though in a couple of years, I would have to work even harder if I wanted to beat Sasuke.

"So as a celebratory gift I decided to teach you a new jutsu," he continued. "I was thinking of what to teach you next. There are hundreds of jutsus I could teach you, but I remembered you said you wanted to be part of the IR squad."

"I said I _might _want to," I corrected, but he ignored me.

"So in about two weeks, when I return from my mission, I'll teach it to you, okay?"

I nodded eagerly. New jutsu, new jutsu, I silently chanted.

He grinned at me before disappearing.

"Shisui!" I grunted, not happy. At all.

The bastard had left me to pay the bill.

.

* * *

.

I was walking on my way to the Konoha Archives when I noticed three chuunin running past me, yelling.

I slowed down, a bit perplexed.

That was odd.

I stopped suddenly looking to my right.

Someone was there, I could feel it. I narrowed my eyes at the dirt, taking note of the footprints that-

"Naruto?" I asked, looking up.

I was sure it was him- I recognized his 'chakra print' (as I liked to call it).

"I know you're there."

He finally got out of his hiding place and gave me an odd look. It was like a pout but looked reproachful and wary.

"The three chuunin were chasing you, right?" I asked, finally getting it.

He had pulled another prank and the chuunin were chasing after him to whoop his behind.

"Hmph, so what if they were? What's it to you eggplant?"

I blinked.

Did he just call me _eggplant_?

No way.

"What did you just call me?" I asked, still blinking, disbelief flashing on my face.

I must of heard wrong.

"Eggplant! You're an eggplant!" he shouted, sticking his tongue out at me before running away.

I never thought that my first conversation with the famous Naturo would turn out this way.

Eggplant.

He had just compared me to a garden fruit! That was more like a vegetable than a fruit. Was that supposed to be some sort of twisted metaphor?

Or maybe he was referring to my hair color. Purple.

My hair was a lighter shade than an _eggplant_! It was more like a violet! Was that kid color blind or what?

I grumbled and continued on my way.

Eggplant.

.

* * *

.

"We are ninja of Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves and Shadows," he explained.

"The shadows?"

"Yes, _shadows_. Now don't interupt me, I haven't finished explaining," he scolded. "Most people don't know the shadow part, which is normal. We hide in the shadows waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. We are unnoticed and move silently. We are ninja. We're like shadows. The Nara understood this, and stemmed their technique from this principle."

Shisui started pacing, which was annoying, but at least he wasn't flickering everywhere. Or joking. Or making fun of me. I realized in horror that he was acting serious for the first time. Maybe he was coming down with something.

"Village Hidden in the Leaves. The leaves create these shadows, do you understand?" He continued once I nodded. "Great. So the technique I'm going to teach you, well you probably won't master it completely for another five years..."

I frowned. Five years for one jutsu? I hoped it was a good one.

"The Nara manipulate shadows. I've tried copying their techniques, but it's a lot harder than you think it is. You have to do all this centering crap..." he trailed off, grimacing. "This technique isn't rated officially, but I'll give it B-rank at worst."

I widened my eyes.

"It's called the Shadow Blending Technique. The basic idea is to blend your body into a nearby shadow. Blend yourself into the shadow of a wall and you'll be able to listen to conversations, stuff like that. The better you are at it, the more things you'll be able to do."

He stopped pacing and looked at me.

"You might be able to stick on to an actual person's shadow, if you work at it. Then if you get to my level, you'll be able to blend just some of your chakra to a shadow. If you ever get to Itachi's level you'll be able to blend your chakra into two dozen different shadows at the same time."

I nodded slowly. This jutsu might really come in handy. But the hard part would be to get the jutsu down. I still had some trouble with the C-rank technique Asuma-sensei taught me, so a B-rank might be just too hard. At the level I was at now anyway. But I could always work at it and practice.

"I'll show you the hand seals now and blend in this shadow, just to show you how it's properly done," he said, slowly showing me the hand seals first, letting me some time to memorize them.

He walked a couple steps left before making the same hand seals but this time at his usual pace.

I felt his chakra flicker and shoot in different directions before sticking and spreading out onto my shadow.

I crouched down in order to face my shadow and observe it better.

It looked the same.

I touched it, trying to figure how the jutsu worked.

"It feels.. well I mean... it doesn't feel like anything. I know something's there, but it's really faint. I would have dismissed it if I hadn't known..."

Great, so from now on I was going to have to double check my shadow and surrounding shadows as well. Somebody might have been spying on me using this shadow technique since I was a baby, and I wouldn't have known.

"See I told you," Shisui grinned appearing right next to me.

I jumped back, putting some space between us.

"Nobody's been able to rid of my chakra even when they noticed something was wrong. It's pretty awesome, right?"

I nodded reluctantly.

"OK, so the first step will be to practice masking your chakra. Do you know how to do that?"

"No," I frowned.

You didn't learn how to mask chakra at The Academy. You learned how to hide and camouflage yourself into your surroundings, but not actually mask your chakra. At least not at the age I was at now.

Shisui tsk-ed, and started to explain how to mask chakra.

"There are two different ways you can mask your chakra. One is to cast an illusion over yourself, but that isn't the best way to roll. The best way to do it, is to direct your chakra into one part of your body and compress it as much as you can."

I did as I was told and tried to 'compress' as best I could. Compressing chakra... It was like balling up your chakra into a tiny dot. It wasn't painful but it was extremely hard to keep chakra in one place and trying to manipulate it. Getting it small and keeping it that way wasn't exactly a cup of tea.

"Okay," I said, struggling. "How's this?"

"Kind of pathetic," responded Shisui, flipping through a book he had brought along.

"Thank you for your words of encouragement," I said, letting my chakra go back to normal.

What an ass.

"You're an ass," I said, voicing my thoughts out loud.

"I prefer the term 'honest', but whatever floats your boat," he shrugged, still reading.

"This is impossible," I said, trying again.

"Maybe you should go ask your Nara friend for help," he suggested.

"Shikamaru, you mean?" I asked. "Is the Shadow Blending technique a Nara technique?"

"No," said Shisui. "Not really. It's loosely based on one of their techniques."

"I don't know if Shika's learned any of his clan techniques yet," I said, frowning. "He's my age."

"No matter. He's with the shadows, he'll know what to do."

I quirked a brow at him. Sometimes Shisui had a weird way of talking.

"Fine, I'll ask him when he's in a working mood," I agreed.

Since this technique had to do with shadows, Shikamaru could actually be a big help. He probably wasn't allowed to teach me any of his clan jutsus and give away too many secrets, but he could help me and give me pointers. Maybe.

.

* * *

.

A couple weeks after the start of spring, news got out that Shisui Uchiha had commited suicide.

Although I had known his death was approaching, I had tried not to think about it too much. Now that it had actually happened, it left me a lot more affected than what I expected.

I hadn't done anything to help Shisui- I hadn't even warned him. Even though he had picked on me a couple times, he had trained me. And I had led him to his death.

I didn't cry- I wouldn't cry. Crying meant weakness and Shisui had done everything to help me become stronger. The least I could do was not cry.

Guilt knawed my conciousness as a pair of red eyes haunted my dreams for several nights.

I had heard they hadn't even given him a grave in the cemetary. The Uchiha considered suicide outside of missions dishonorable and apparently refused to have him buried- not that there had been any body to bury anyway. His name wouldn't be engraved on the memorial stone either, since he hadn't died in battle.

There was nothing to remember him by (though I had heard some rumors about a memorial for him inside the Uchiha compound, right where he had taken his life).

The massacre would soon happen. I felt powerless.

Who could I tell? Who would believe me? I had no proof. And anyways, it was my word against the Konoha council. Not likely anyone would believe me.

.

It wasn't announced officially, but everyone knew.

It left Konoha in a darkened mood for days. Even Tadashi, who had always said he wanted the Uchiha clan to disappear, was nervous and regretful. I think this was because he had ended up befriending Shisui, but it was mostly because he had never honestly disliked the clan. He had been jealous and found them annoying, but didn't actually have anything against them.

It came as a shock when rumors went about that it was _Itachi _who had eliminated his clan. Itachi who had been the Uchiha's trump card, their most powerful asset.

This was supposed to be classified information, but I guess some people just had a way with information.

I hated the elders for soiling Itachi's reputation. For condemning him to a life of a missing-nin. For making him choose between his family and his village.

But what other choice did they have? Letting the Uchiha clan live would have resulted in a civil war. I couldn't hate the elders that much.

Except maybe Danzou. Yeah. I would allow myself to hate Danzou. I added him to my list of people I hated and hoped to see die soon (which was only composed of Tobi, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Danzou).

And even though I hadn't had any part in the massacre, I felt responsible for the death of all those Uchiha. Should I have warned someone? What could have I done? What was I supposed to do?

The red eyes in my dreams multiplied.

.

* * *

.

We were alone on the small hill, taking a small break after two hours of training.

"What's going on? You seem preoccupied these days," asked Asuma-sensei, turning to look at me.

"Ah," I started, not really knowing what to say.

I couldn't lie to him- that sort of thing was impossible. He and Dad always knew when I was lying. Always. No matter if I slowed my heartbeat, kept a straight face- they always knew.

"It's just that.. I'm not strong enough," I said, trying to stick to the truth as much as possible. "We've been training since _forever_, and I don't seem to be progressing at all."

No matter how far I would progress there would always be someone out there more powerful than me. I had accepted that fact ages ago. But still- if I wanted to protect Konoha I would have to be stronger than what I was today.

"Oh? Well you know getting stronger takes time," he said. "And patience and hard work."

I knew all that. But even if I practiced non-stop for the next four years, how could I ever beat someone like Orochimaru? Wasn't the guy like 60? 60 years of experience I would have to face.

"You know," said Asuma-sensei, seeing that his answer hadn't pleased me. "You were a lot stronger than I was at your age."

I was?

That was shocking. No really, it was. Asuma was the Hokage's son. He had inherited a large reserve of chakra and a bunch of fancy jutsus.

Maybe I would have thought that Asuma-sensei was just saying that to apease me, but I knew better than that. Asuma-sensei never gave out compliments unless he meant them. And that made me feel proud. Proud to be his student. Proud to have him by my side.

"Wow, you never give out compliments. What is that you want from me?" I asked, joking.

Asuma-sensei rolled his eyes and continued. "You're going to go far kid. I believe in you."

I beamed.

Asuma-sensei had become an uncle-like figure. He was family. And for him, for my family, I would become stronger.

.

* * *

.

"Are you guys sure?" asked Chouji nervously, following Shikamaru and I through the bustling streets of Konoha.

"Sure," I shrugged, turning to smile at him. "It's the last week before break. It's not like they're going to teach us anything new now."

"And we finished all our exams," added Shikamaru, nodding.

"Most people are skipping class anyway, Chou," I said, stopping by a stand that was selling 'new and improved' soldier pills.

"These originate from Kiri. It took me a long time to get my hands on these babies! They're super efficient," the merchant said nodding at me energetically. "Guarantee to make you win any battle."

"Hum," I mused. "Kiri has the highest ninja mortality rate out of the five shinobi villages."

The vendor started to stutter and sweat.

Next.

"As I said, most students are skipping anyway. I remember Tadashi used to skip all the time to play with his friends."

We had decided today was a good day to ditch class. I wouldn't encourage people to skip as a general rule, but lessons these days were boring and consisted of worksheet after worksheet. And anyways, today was market day and vendors usually stocked up on new goods.

Market day happened three times a week, but now that plants and food had time to grow, things became a little more interesting.

I followed Shikamaru across a bridge when suddenly he halted, making me bump into him.

"Sorry," I said, excusing myself. "But seriously, you should-"

"Look," he interrupted, motioning to the crowd below.

"Look where?" asked Chouji, who was also trying to find something out of place.

Nothing.

"Kora," grunted Shika.

Kora? Kora was having his usual type of fun with his friends. Wait. Since when was _Naruto _part of the Kora band?

I strained my ear to listen to their conversation.

"I'll let you play with us if you prove you're courageous enough. We don't hang with wimps," smirked Kora, crossing his arms.

He explained to Naruto that he had to go get something for him in a forest on the east end of Konoha. I frowned, not really understanding what was so 'courageous' about doing that. Kora had always been twisted.

"Naruto wants to join Kora?" exclaimed Chouji, eyes wide.

Yeah, I didn't really get it either. I mean, we're talking about Kora here. He had bullied Naruto I don't know how many times.

I had always trusted Naruto to make his friends on his own. But maybe I still had the image of Shippuden Naruto engraved in my mind. Maybe I should have befriended him as well.

"I don't know," shrugged Shikamaru, frowning.

He was lying.

I looked over at him, eyebrow raised before shaking my head.

Even I knew why. The reason was obvious enough if the person knew Naruto. Or at least, who Naruto was and what he had to go through.

Shikamaru probably didn't know that Naruto carried the nine-tails, but he had noticed the way people looked and talked about him. Naruto was lonely and in desperate need of friends.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, feeling guilty once again.

"Let's go," said Shika, snapping me out of my thoughts.

We followed him until he stopped in front of a spice stall, peering at the different tubes and pouches of spices.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at a tube filled with red stuff.

"Chili pepp-ahs!" the old vendor explained, showing us his lovely row of missing front teeth. "They good f-ah ninj-ahs! Wake up senses when y-ah drowsy."

"Ah," said Shikamaru, scratching his chin. "Chili peppers. Might be useful... we don't grow that kind of stuff."

The vendor nodded and I cut in, to start negociating.

I was better at negociating, although I think that was only because Shikamaru found it too troublesome.

"Ha," I grinned, after convincing the bald headed man to sell his chili pepper for half price. "What would you do without me?"

"Pay twice as much," replied Shikamaru, smiling as well.

"Come on Chouji, let's go get something to eat," I announced, starting to feel a bit hungry after walking in front of food all morning.

"Yeah!" grinned Chouji, steering us toward a candy stall.

"What do you three think you're doing?!"

We all froze, eyes widening.

Crowds were, of course, ideal for hiding and escaping. It was hard to locate the person you were looking for, what with all the comotion and different chakras. The only problem was, it was harder to locate your pursuers as well.

I frowned. I hadn't expected Iruka-sensei to come looking after us.

"Aren't you three supposed to be in class?" he demanded, his hands on his hips, sort of reminding me of Shikamaru's mom when she reprimanded him.

"Er," we stuttered.

"Get back to class! If I don't see you guys when I get back, I'll be obligated to have a talk with your parents."

"Actually, I don't think my parents will mind too much if-"

"Go!" barked Iruka-sensei, pushing us towards the direction of the Academy.

"Oh, by the way," he said, making us pause. "Have you guys, by any chance, seen Naruto?"

"He was on the street below," Shikamaru, nodding over to the bridge we had crossed earlier. "But that was fifteen minutes ago."

"Okay, thanks!" said Iruka-sensei before dashing off.

"Fine, I guess we don't really have a choice," I said, frowning. "But let's walk there slowly."

"Yeah, there's no hurry," added Shikamaru, pocketing his hands.

It turned out Kora had sent Naruto out in a forest where it was rumored that enemy nin had been spotted.

Even so, Naruto had manage to pass his 'test of courage', or whatever, but Kora still refused to acknowledge him.

This greatly displeased and I tried to approach Naruto several times afterwards, but he was a lot more guarded than usual, calling me 'eggplant' before running away.

.

* * *

.

It was almost dark when I finally gathered up my courage.

It had been forever since I last saw the Uchiha compound. I had tried to avoid it ever since the massacre.

It felt wrong to be here, and I tensed, wondering if someone was going to materialize, just like Shisui used to, to tell me to get the hell away from their sacred ground.

Even though they had cleaned up after the incident, everything felt different.

There were no more signs of haughty chakras, no more echoes of chatting, nothing. I took a couple of steps tentatively, passing by abandoned homes.

The Uchiha compound had turned into a ghost town.

I jumped when I heard a door cringe.

I chided myself.

I was scared of creaking doors and empty houses! Imagine what I would be like during war! Pathetic. Shisui would have been ashamed of me.

"Get a grip," I muttered, walking a little bit faster.

I wondered if Sasuke had moved out. I wouldn't blame him. This place creeped me out.

"Oak tree next to the Naka River," I repeated, trying to situate myself. "Oak tree?"

I heard the quiet sounds of the river before I saw it. Next to the small bridge of faded red, there was a big oak tree and I made my way towards it.

I immediately noticed Shisui's named engraved on the trunk in neat writing, probably done with a kunai. The marks were clean cut and sharp, and I wondered if anybody in the village had come to visit him as well.

I plopped down on my knees and deposited the small bunch of lavender. I prayed quietly, deeming it appropriate. But with Shisui, it didn't seem like enough.

"I... I'm sorry I took so long to come visit," I said quietly. "I got you lavender. It's not really what you're supposed to put on a grave, but I remembered you mentioning you liked the smell of lavender."

He had said that lavender reminded him of me. Lavender now reminded me of him.

"I'm sorry for a lot of things," I continued. "I hope you'll forgive me, wherever you are now."

I had always thought that talking while visiting a grave, made you feel worse. Because you never got an answer back, because it confirmed that the person was gone for good. Strangely, it calmed me and made me feel a bit better.

I think Shisui wouldn't have minded being burried here. All I could hear were the chirping of birds, the whistling of wind, and the streaming of water. It was peaceful. And Shisui deserved peace.

"I never got to pay you back for training me, though I suppose I wouldn't have known what to give you," I said, looking down at my clasped hands.

Seriously though. Shisui had everything. Girls, skill, money, reputation... What else would he have wanted?

A leaf landed lazily on top of my hands and I took that as a sign.

Shisui cared a lot for his village. Maybe if I looked out for it, it could be considered as payback. Hm. But with Shisui, it didn't seem like enough. Because I could do so much more. But what?

What else did Shisui care for? Itachi, for one. But Itachi was now considered a dangerous missing-nin that many in this village wanted dead. And I had no idea where Itachi was now. No idea. And I didn't see why a missing-nin would want to be looked after by me anyway.

But Itachi cared for Sasuke. And if I looked after Sasuke, then I would be doing a favor for Itachi and in turn for Shisui. That sort of promise seemed a bit more reasonable.

Though now that I think about it... Sasuke would in turn become a missing-nin. How was I supposed to look after him then? Ugh.

Maybe looking after Konoha seemed like a good deal after all.

"I'll protect Konoha for you," I promised. "I'll do anything I can to protect it."

But even then, it didn't seem like enough. Because with Shisui, it was never enough.

.

* * *

.


	10. Chapter 9: The Obstacle

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

.

* * *

- Chapter 9: The Obstacle -

.

* * *

.

"You will never know how many believe that you will succeed. It is important that you believe it your self."

.

My following years at the Academy went by smoothly. I made sure to improve my grades in taijutsu, that way Mom and Asuma would stop bugging me about my not so impressive grades.

We had just started learning clone and transformation jutsus, the two jutsus considered the hardest to learn at the Academy. Since I had already learned those techniques years prior, the hardest part was to pretend I was having trouble with them.

On the side, I tried learning other things.

For one, I was working on medical ninjutsu.

Medical ninjutsu as I had once explained, was a very tricky matter. Many things could go wrong.

Also, medical ninjutsu wasn't cut out for everyone, since it did require perfect chakra control- something many ninja didn't have. Extensive knowledge of the body anatomy was another important thing to have.

The only things I had accomplished so far in that domain was a simple energy transfer and the tending of small wounds. Small wounds as in scratches and cuts.

Energy transfer was used mainly to restore a teammate's low store of energy, although the downside was that it would drain me of the energy instead.

Psh. Forget trying to regenerate other people's cells- it was just too hard for me to learn. At least at the moment. The Mystical Palm Technique was considered an A-rank technique for a reason.

Still. I knew the basics of it, and a little something was better than nothing in my opinion.

.

My genjutsu skills were a lot better.

I could dispel any genjutsu my dad cast on me easily now. Put up against a real strong genjutsu though- I don't think I would be able to break free. Like against the Sharingan, for example.

I was also able to cast mediocre genjutsus. It was interesting controlling your chakra once it entered the opponent's body, though at first it had grossed me out. The feeling of weaving yourself through someone's brain was enough to gross anyone out.

In the ninjutsu area, I wasn't bad. I was a lot better than kids my age, that was for sure. I had the chakra control necessary to perform certain jutsus- it was just the amount that I lacked in. Why couldn't I have been born in a body with larger chakra reserves? Granted, I still had more than children my age, but that was because I had practiced using and moulding my chakra since I was little.

I still had hope though, seeing as your chakra stores got bigger with age... though there would be a time where my chakra reserves would stop developing entirely.

I had taught myself some other practical jutsus. Like how to create a shadow clone. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu had piqued my interest for some time, to tell you the truth. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was one of Naruto's signature moves.

Unlike Naruto had made it out to be, shadow clones were extremely difficult to make.

There were of course disadvantages while using a shadow clone. Firstly, everything your clone went through was transfered back to you when it disperesed. So in battle, if your clone got punched the living crap of- or worse, killed- the pain would all be transferred back to you. Lovely right? And because of the way shadow clones are created, the user -meaning me- could potentially be drained of chakra if they created too many clones or were too low on chakra.

In order to successfully create a shadow clone - an actual copy not an illusion- you had to split your chakra in half.

It took me several days to be able to do that. Splitting your chakra wasn't painful, it was just uncomfortable.

When I had finally mastered the successful splitting of chakra, my clone had disappeared shortly after it had appeared.

It was hard, but I practiced everyday, holding the jutsu a bit longer than the last.

My clone was a funny thing.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see yourself from someone else's point of view? Well, that's how it felt like... It was an odd feeling.

There were also the jutsus Shisui had helped me with, but ever since he had died I hadn't been able to correctly execute the body flicker technique. I didn't have a particular need to use it, so my inability to flicker this way and that didn't bother me much.

.

* * *

.

This wasn't real.

I clenched my eyes shut, hoping this was a genjutsu and I was just seeing things.

I was going crazy.

That had to be it. There was just no way that this was real.

Yup.

Just a genjutsu.

Silly mind tricks.

After all, there wasjust_ no way_ someone would actually-

"Ren-chan what is _that_?"

I snapped my eyes open to see Ino snatch the paper up.

Oh sweet Kami, kill me now. Not _her_.

Not Ino.

Could this get any worse?

"Why is she turning red?" I heard Chouji ask.

Red? I was turning _red_? Gosh, this was becoming more and more embarassing as the seconds ticked by.

"Dear Ren-chan," Ino read out.

She wasn't going to do what I think she was... _Right_?

No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

I reached up to snatch the letter away but she evaded me easily.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, your hair is beautiful and so are you."

I froze.

I can't believe that she actually read it out loud!

What. An. Idiot.

She really had a death wish going for her at the moment, Ino did.

"Meet me under the cherry blossom trees after school if you want to go on a date with me," finished Ino, smiling- somewhat maliciously- at me.

_This was all just a bad dream_, I tried to convince myself. Now that Ino got involved, the dream could only get worse.

"That is so sweet!" she shrieked, clapping her hands once. "Who do you think it is? It can't be Sasuke-kun, because _you're_ not his type, it's not Shikamaru-kun because he's too lazy to come up with something like this... Hasuo-kun maybe? You two are pretty close. _Wow_! I would be jealous of you if I didn't already have Sasuke-kun!"

_Right_.

As if _Hasuo_ could do something like this.

I shook my head at her foolishness. Hasuo?

Not ever in a million years. Even if we happened to be the last two living creatures on earth, I doubt he would write me that poem.

Hypothetically speaking, even if he did have silly crush on me, he wouldn't make a poem. Especially that cheesy.

But she was right. There was no way it was Sasuke or Shika. Or even Chouji for that matter. Actually, it wasn't that hard to figure out who the person was.

Handwriting was a pretty big clue (unless the person had decided to forge someone else's handwriting). I took the letter back from Ino's clutches and examined it. It also held a small hint of chakra that could only belong to...

Kora.

I grimaced slightly.

He liked me? _Gross_.

I mean, Kora wasn't that bad looking and was a pretty average all around student but... the fact that he was ten years old put aside, he was _mean_.

He constantly picked on Naruto, Chouji and Shikamaru, something that I really disliked. After all, it wasn't honorable to pick on people whom you knew were weaker than you. Not saying that Naruto and the others were weaker than Kora. But to pick on someone you _thought _was weaker than you.. It was like a jounin picking on a genin. It wasn't honorable at all.

I decided I wasn't even going to show up to tell him I wasn't interested. Ino and her group of friends were most likely going to be there just to see who the secret admirer was. Like I was going to humiliate him in front of the groupies. I wasn't that evil.

I went back to my seat, frowning.

I shot Shikamaru a glare after seeing his mocking smile.

"_Shut up_," I mumbled before burying my head in my hands.

.

The madness didn't stop there.

Eiji, who was a student a year older, had also asked me for _private sparring_ with me.

I was concvinced that that was one of those overused ninja innuendo pick up lines.

After that incident, girls hated me. Though now that I think about it, I wasn't very liked to begin with.

They constantly spoke about me behind my back which didn't bother me. Much.

One day however, a girl had actually confronted me during our lunch break.

"You _know_ it's true Ren," she sneered.

She was shorter than me by two inches, had long black hair and dull features. She wasn't in my class and I don't remember ever talking to her... I sat there, looking at her in confusion.

"Haven't you ever wondered why you have _stupid_ purple hair and your parents don't? You're mom's a whore!" taunted the girl with long black hair.

Shikamaru tensed beside me and Chouji actually stopped eating.

A few people had gathered around and started to whisper. I shot them all a glare.

I got up from the bench I was eating at, to stare at her furiously. Talking about me was one thing, but to actually insult my family was another. Cliché or not, I cared for them. Maybe it was rash and unprofessional of me to give in to a childs taunts. OK, it _was_ a rash and stupid to let her words get to me. But now people had gathered and if I ignored her they would think it was true because I hadn't denied anything!

And anyways, didn't they have anything better to do? Was that all they cared about? Gossip, looks, guys... What idiots!

I used my full strength and speed and swung a fist at the unsuspecting Rue. I was certain I had broken her nose after hearing a crunching noise.

I ignored the crowding of students and lashed out.

"Keep talking like that and your nose won't be the only thing broken, Rue- _chan_," I hissed before storming off, enraged.

Rue hadn't even put up a good fight.

I think her family were medic ninjas so I doubt her nose would stay broken, much to my displeasure.

I got a detention for that.

It was my first time ever, despite having 'cut class' with Shika and Chouji before. Those two usually cut class with Kiba and Naruto to either sleep or eat.

During those times, I created one shadow clone, having Chouji punching me to dispel my jutsu when they got caught.

I wasn't exactly close with Kiba and Naruto but I did talk to them from time to time. Although Naruto kept calling me 'eggplant', he was nice to me. Kiba wasn't any better than Naruto but his dog seemed to like me enough.

I spent most of my time practicing gymnastic like taijutsu. Practicing yoga had improved my flexibility a great deal.

My taijutsu style consisted of using my flexibility and speed to dodge attacks and then aim for the opponent's pressure points. Then I would use senbon needles to immobolize them. I wasn't very strong so I didn't like to kick or punch very much. Though if I had enough chakra I would sometimes infuse some into my fist or foot for a good hard impact (I never used the chakra infused hits on my classmates though, just on Asuma-sensei).

Detention was odd. Not really what I had expected it to be.

Iruka-sensei made me practice my aim and told me that once I could successfully aim 10 shuriken in a row at a target I was free to leave.

The target in question was big and stationary- unlike the small moving ones my mom made me practise with.

Needless to say, I was gone in no time.

My mom was particularly horrified with the news that I had broken another girl's nose. I refused to tell her why, even though she had bothered me about it quite a bit. What was I supposed to tell her anyway? That she had a bad reputation among kids?

I think Dad knew why but he said nothing.

Tadashi, however, was _proud_ of me. He told me that it was important to stand up for oneself and not let others walk all over you. It was funny how he immediately assumed that the girl was the bad person in this story instead of me, who had punched her.

Oh, how I did love him.

.

* * *

.

Obstacle course.

This was some weird tradition in which you were assigned to a team of three and had to get to a destination while avoiding traps and fake ambushes. You got a map, compass, and that was about it.

I ended up in the team with Hasuo and Hinata.

I was lucky.

They were both very good.

I looked over at Shikamaru and Chouji. They had gotten stuck with Ino, but I supposed they could have gotten much, much worse.

"OK, listen up kids," Mizuki-sensei said. "You have two hours to complete this task."

"What do we get if we win?" barked Kiba.

Typical Kiba reaction.

"You mean, what's the prize?" asked Iruka-sensei, smirking.

I didn't like that look..

Iruka-sensei had many facial expressions but when he was smirking it usually meant that he was going to announce news that would displease us all.

"Well... let's just say that while all the losing teams have to work and do extra laps around the field, the winners will get to do something else..."

Which in my opinion, wasn't a very comforting thought.

"When I blow my whistle, you will all move out!"

I looked at Hasuo and Hinata.

They were both very good in taijutsu, which meant they could defend themselves. We also had the advantage of Hinata's Byakugan.

Hm. Not a very bad team at all.

I briefly wondered how the Byakugan worked.. Was it like the Sharingan and activated at a certain age? Did every clan member receive it? I knew that it allowed you to visualize a person's chakra circulatory system and gave you a 360° vision.

I frowned. I had other things to worry about.

We moved out quickly once we heard the whistle, moving in standard formation.

Each team had a different destination so we couldn't know if we were ahead of everyone or moving too slowly. Our destination was, judging by the map, somewhere south, deep in the forest.

I tensed, feeling someone's chakra signals.

"There are three ninja up ahead," I said, drawing a kunai.

We arrived a clearing that was perfect for an ambush. I looked up to see three leaf ninja badly disguised as grass enemy nin.

I covered Hasuo and Hinata while they were attacking, by throwing kunai at the 'enemy'.

Hasuo nodded once we had made all the ninja disappear.

I frowned and followed Hasuo after making sure Hinata and him weren't injured.

The next obstacle was a genjutsu.

Simple and easy to see through, compared to what my dad usually put me through. I dispelled it and noticed that Hinata had done the same.

Hasuo, however, was oblivious to the trap. His eyes were transfixed as if in a daze. I was about to give him a good punch when he suddenly lunged to attack me.

My eyes bulged. The genjutsu placed on him had him thinking that we were the enemy. Hinata let out a little yelp and jumped away.

"Oh no, not good," I said, dodging one of his powerful kicks. "Hinata-chan don't worry. He's not crazy."

Dodge.

Why did Hasuo have to be so strong? I was surely going to bruise if I let him hit me. Maybe even break something.

"He's still under the genjutsu," I panted, swerving around his kick. "We have to somehow undo it. A good punch will suffice, I think."

That's what my dad had advised me. The physical pain would break the genjutsu cast on your teammate. I had never had the chance to actually test the theory but well... There was a first time for everything.

I punched him hard across the jaw.

Hasuo stumbled back and grimaced. His eyes weren't hazy anymore though- a good sign.

"Hey, are you OK?" I asked, trying to get a good look at him.

"Fine. Though I should be asking you the same question! You just.. _punched_ me!" he yelled, holding his jaw with one hand.

He looked somewhat horrified.

"Yes, I did. You were under a genjutsu and started attacking us," I said, eaching to hold up his chin, examining the damage I had caused.

It would probably bruise but I hadn't damaged anything else.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, letting my energy flow through my fingers and into his body. His jaw wasn't injured badly, just a sore muscle. The energy I applied to it would ease the tension and help his pain.

"Let's get a move on," I said, releasing my hold on his face.

"Hinata-san are we going in the right direction?" asked Hasuo looking over at her.

Hinata fumbled with the map and the compass. After a few moments she put them away, nodding.

"W-we need to go South-West."

We continued on, moving silently and efficiently.

.

_"What do you mean we didn't win?" _

_"This is so unfair!" _

_"They cheated!"_

I tuned out all the protests made by the other children once we had returned back to the school.

"They won fair and square, now quiet down before I add laps to run!" said Iruka-sensei, irritated.

The crowd went quiet at this. No one wanted to run even _more_ laps.

"Kiba, Shino and Sasuke are the winners of this obstacle course! You three follow me while the rest of you stay with Iruka-sensei!" shouted Mizuki-sensei.

Kiba started grinning and talking about how strong and amazing he was. The other two didn't say anything but they didn't have to. Their postures had changed slightly. They were proud.

I frowned, mirroring Hasuo's expression.

I was not happy about this at all.

_Ugh_!

We had arrived literally five seconds after them. Five. Seconds.

Five seconds!

Do you even know how frustrating that feels?

It didn't even matter if we had been a _second_ late. We had lost. That's all anyone remembered.

"Don't worry about it Hasuo-kun, Ren-chan," said Hinata, trying to comfort us.

I smiled a little at her. She was really nice. But nice or not, we still got lost to those three. Kiba would make sure to remind us of our loss for the next few weeks.

Ugh.

I started running, wanting to get these laps over with.

.

* * *

.

"Hinata-chan, can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked approaching her carefully.

I hadn't talked to her since the obstacle course field day.

"Y-yes, of course," she said, nervously.

Did she have any friends?

I had never really payed attention to Hinata before since I usually hung out with Shikamaru and Choui. When I was with those two,I blocked everyone and everything else out. They brought me peace and I made sure not to let my worries disrupt that.

During the obstacle course however, I had tuned into Hinata's chakra. Somewhere swirling in her chakra, she felt _lonely_. Since then, I found myself wondering about her.

"I was wondering if you wanted to train with me?" I asked.

I knew I was treading dangerous waters.

The Hyuuga clan was reclusive and secretive. They didn't meddle too much with non-clan members. In fact, they looked down on anyone who weren't clan members. Bah. The whole "one of the noble and respected clan" reputation must have made their ego grow.

"I w-will have to ask my f-father about it," she said after thinking about it.

"That's great. Well, see you around then!" I smiled.

Eh.

Turned out, it was _very_ complicated to get a training session with Hinata. Too complicated.

I was _stalked_ for two weeks straight by a Hyuuga clan member. They weren't very skilled because even Shikamaru noticed his presence one day when we were out watching the clouds.

After they had considered me acceptable (though 'acceptable' was a bit of an exagerration), I had to sign a _consent form_. Something about not harming Hinata and swearing I wasn't there to discover the Byakugan's and the Hyuuga's secrets.

Ridiculous.

The Hyuuga compound was big. Much bigger than I had orginally thought.

I tried not to look around too much because I didn't want my escort to think I was spying on the compound. The guy looked at me suspicioulsy before I had even taken a step into the compound.

"Hiashi-sama will now see you," he said, before bowing slightly and opening the door.

I followed Hinata in, peering over her shoulder to get a better look at her father.

His aura radiated strength and power. He was tall, had long hair- but it wasn't like I hadn't seen all that before. He had stern facial features that seemed to make him look older than he really was. Or maybe he really was that old.

I snapped out of my daze the moment he started speaking. His voice has sharp, grave and condescending.

"So .._this_ is Tanaka Ren," he said unimpressed.

I refrained from frowning and bowed slightly.

I didn't like the way he said my name like I was a piece of his leftover lobster, or whatever expensive food he ate. I was clearly unwelcomed here to say the least.

"Do you understand the consequences if you break your agreement?"

"Yes Hyuuga-sama.." I said, nodding.

I didn't really like calling him '-sama' -he hardly had done anything to deserve my respect- but what choice did I have? The guard-like Hyuuga behind me seemed to be waiting for any given opportunity to attack me.

"You will have one hour to train with Hinata. Then you will leave. Neji will supervise."

Neji?

I followed Hinata out after another quick bow in his direction.

Jeez, he scared me shitless! I was glad I wasn't in his presence anymore. No wonder Hinata felt so insecure. With a father like that... I shook my head. It was no time for negative thoughts.

The Hyuuga training ground was in an enclosed area but big enough for taijutsu training.

"I'll come back in one hour to escort you out," the escort guy said before leaving.

I looked at Hinata. She had relaxed considerably since we had left her father's room but was still pretty tense. Heck, I was too. You would too if you were being observed from five different directions.

I looked to my left. Was that.. Neji?

He looked so small! My eyes widened a bit. Heh, despite the fact that he was a lot younger now, he still managed to look like a mini version of the frigid Hiashi I had met only moments before.

Long brown hair, scowling features, milky unreadable orbs as eyes...

I looked away quickly after meeting his gaze.

He had creepy eyes.

"Are you ready? We can start out by just stimple taijutsu to warm-up," I said, somewhat unsure.

Hinata nodded and got into her fighting stance.

I chose a simple offensive stance that Asuma had taught me long ago.

.

After a good forty five minutes, we were both covered in sweat and dirt.

Hinata was precise and sharp in her movements but she was a little too slow. She was very good though, overall, even though she was a little too hesitant. Her hesitation made it easier to read her movements.

"Hmm... normally I would tell you that you could use the Byakugan.." I said after I had stopped panting. "But.. people with kekkai genkais tend to rely a bit too much on those powers. You need to learn how to be good without it too, you know? You're very good."

She blushed a light shade of pink.

"Practice on your speed. Also try training blindfolded without your Byakugan. I train blindfolded all the time and it really helps increase the other senses. Now I can visualize without seeing."

I drew out a kunai to prove my point. Closing my eyes I focused on remembering where the tree was and in a flick of my wrist I had planted the kunai in the tree.

A simple trick.

"That's all very nice, but I doubt this method is needed."

I snapped my eyes open and turned around to face Neji.

I had forgotten how stuck up and annoying he was before Naruto had converted him.

I frowned.

Neji was even more intimidating up close.

"What do you suggest then?" I asked, annoyed.

"To quit at trying to become a ninja," he said in utmost seriousness.

...

"I regret ever asking, _Sunshine_," I said, turning away from him. "Don't listen to him Hinata-chan. You just need to believe in yourself because belief in oneself is the first step in becoming stronger."

"That's ridiculous. Belief in oneself cannot change fate," Neji stated, crossing his arms.

"Fate?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Oh right, I had forgot how hung up he was on all that fate bullshit.

"I don't believe in fate," I shrugged.

"No, I suppose you don't need to believe in fate to know if you're a failure or not," he said, impassively.

Genius or not, this guy was really close-minded. Maybe it was a side effect of being that smart.

"I don't need to believe in fate to know if someone's an ass either," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"I have never been wrong before," he said, ignoring my comment. "I always know if someone is a failure or not. In fact, you aren't any better than Hinata. Your movements are slow and aiming is off."

Neji seriously had a superiority complex.

Though I admit he had a sharp eye... but did he seriously believe that I would actually aim directly at Hinata? I didn't want to risk hurting her because she was my friend but also because her father would have my head cut off.

And anyways, this Neji guy (no matter how cool he would become in the future), was a jerk. Sort of reminded me of Kora and Sasuke combined into one. Hopefully he would change but for now..

I turned back to face Hinata, choosing to ignore him. "You really shouldn't let pricks like him discourage you. You're very good. Just believe in yourself more and you'll be truly great!"

Now I understood why she loved Naruto. She could relate to him- they both wanted to feel acknowledged. Not to mention he was an inspiration- never giving up no matter what people thought of him.

I felt a little bad for her. Out of all the people in the world, she had to be raised by these paranoid pessimistic people. (Paranoid pessimistic people... PPP? That sounded a whole lot better than just 'Hyuuga'.)

I wondered what would have happened if I had been born as a PPP. Would I have believed in fate as well? What if I had been reborn as an orphan in Oto? Or a servant of Orochimaru? I had been lucky, very lucky, to have been reborn in a nice family in Konoha.

"Your hour's up," said the PPP from earlier, appearing next to me. "Follow me out."

I was pretty sure I still had roughly ten minutes left to train with Hinata, but who was I to complain? I wanted to leave just as much as he wanted me gone.

"Bye Hinata-chan! See you at school!" I smiled before following him out.

Thank goodness. I didn't know how much longer I would have lasted without threatning the PPP which was, unfortunately, forbidden in the contract.

I could only hope Hinata would stop listening to her family's negative comments and believe in herself. She would grow a lot stronger if she did.

.

* * *

.


	11. Chapter 10: The Graduation Exam

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

.

* * *

- Chapter 10: The Graduation Exam -

.

* * *

.

"Childhood is short, maturity is forever."

.

Mom told me to make my last year at the Academy count.

I 'd been training genjutsu with my dad, taijutsu and ninjutsu with Asuma, and my weapon throwing skills with Mom for as long as I could remember.

I practiced hours on end. Some simple skills had even become second nature to me.

If after all this hard work I didn't graduate... Then what would it all have been for?

OK, so graduating wasn't really the issue. Passing the genin test was.

Only 9 genin graduated right? That would make my chances of graduating pretty slim. Very slim.

The difficulty of the test was determined by the jounin teacher I would get.

In fact, the only test I knew of was Kakashi's bell test. The answer to the test had been teamwork so maybe, theoretically it didn't matter what type of test I got, the answer would always be teamwork. Hm...

On the side, I had been trying to teach myself more medical ninjutsu. I was now able to heal any wort of surface wounds but still couldn't perform any life saving or fatal wound healing. Since I wasn't an expert in healing while using chakra, I would rely on my ample knowledge of medical herbs and plants.

I also had improved a great deal over the years at chakra shape transformation.

With my chakra strings I could even manipulate some weapons- mostly senbon since they were light and easy to maneuver. I could also do other things with my chakra, like extend it out of my body and make it form a sort of barrier. Admittedly, it could only subdue blows and deflect weapons coming in one direction and I couldn't hold it in place for very long, but it was something. Anything useful was good enough for me.

Sometimes I trained after school with Hasuo. He helped me improve my strength while I helped him improve his aim. I also trained once or twice in the Hyuga compound again, each time as awkward as the last. Her father hadn't warmed up to me in the least. None of the clan members I encountered had- though they did seem to recognize who I was now.

But how could they not? Not that many people in the village had purple hair. I only knew of two- my grandfather and some ANBU member I had seen once or twice.

Personally, I didn't really like my purple hair. Not only was it weird, but it would be a hindrance during undercover and infiltration missions.

Occasionally I trained with Hasuo. With him I practiced working on my stamina and with Hinata I practiced improving my speed and flexibility. I never used my full speed against Hasuo and Hinata. Especially with Hinata. Every time I trained with her, I was observed like some specimen under a microscope by a third party member. They didn't want me to learn their secrets and I certainly didn't want them to learn mine. Especially Neji. I might have to fight against him in the future and it was always better to have an element of surprise. Always. Especially if you were thought of as weak. Underestimating an opponent was one of a ninja's biggest mistake.

.

* * *

.

One day in class, we were all finishing a worksheet on the shinobi rules of conduct that Iruka-sensei had given us when Mizuki-sensei rushed in the classroom, alarm clouding his features.

"Iruka you need to come! Something horrible has happened, you need to come! Code orange."

Code orange? I tried to remember such a code. I hadn't read anything about it and my father hadn't informed me of a new code being put in place. Maybe it was one of those codes only ninja had knowledge of.

"Finish the worksheet. I'll expect it done when I come back," he said, sighing before following Mizuki-sensei out.

I frowned. That was strange.

Not only did Iruka-sensei not look worried, he said it as though that 'horrible' something wouldn't take long to solve.

I looked around to see if other people had thought the same way. The other students had seemed undisturbed by the news and had taken Iruka's absence as a free pass to talk with their friends.

My eyes widened as I looked out the window.

Then it became clear.

…

Naruto had just trashed the Hokage Mountain.

.

"I've had enough of you! Tomorrow is the ninja school's graduation exam. You've already failed twice, this is no time to be causing more trouble idiot!" yelled Iruka-sensei at a tied up Naruto.

Did sensei really have to tie him up with ropes? Wasn't that a little too much?

And how had Naruto been able to take the graduation examination before? We were in the same year. Unless you were recommended by a teacher, you weren't allowed to take the exam before you turned 12. Unless maybe Iruka-sensei had recommended him in order to get rid of him but it didn't seem likely. People recommended were usually geniuses, something Naruto was far from.

Though, I had to hand it to him. Naruto had managed vandalize the Hokage's stone faces without getting caught by the other ninja of chuunin rank. Maybe even jounin rank. He had some brains somewhere in there that was for sure. I mean, to be able to get away from pulling that sort of prank you had to have some strategizing skills. I couldn't name more than a handful of strudents in our class that would be able to get away with something like that. And even a 'handful of students' seemed like an exaggeration. Naruto wasn't as dumb and simple-minded as everyone though he was. Something that was overlooked by a lot of our classmates.

"Whatever," said Naruto dismissively, looking away.

"That's it!" shouted Iruka-sensei, annoyed by his disdainful behavior. "Because of you _everyone_ will go over the transformation jutsu!"

The class let out a collective groan and reluctantly got up from their seats to form a line in the front of the classroom. I followed them, still thinking about Naruto.

Sakura was up first and transformed into a perfect copy of Iruka-sensei.

"Good job Sakura," smiled Iruka, writing something down that appeared to be a check mark judging by his hand stroke.

"Yes! _Yes_! I did it! Sasuke-kun, did you see that?" she said happily, jumping up and down.

I looked over at him. He flat out ignored her.

I don't know, but in her shoes I would have given up on him ages ago. His message was clear- he wasn't interested. And anyways, it didn't look like he was ready to warm up anytime soon. His frigid demeanor reminded me of Neji. Which wasn't exactly a compliment.

I observed the following transformations closely. Most of the other students' transformations were pretty good imitations of Iruka though some weren't entirely identical. A missing detail here and there...

"Ren, you're up."

I stepped forward and formed the hand seals Dog- Boar- Ram. I didn't need to look down to know that I had successfully transformed into Iruka-sensei.

"Good," he said, jotting something down.

I went back to stand next to Shikamaru mimicking his bored expression.

"Next, Naruto."

This caught my attention.

"This sucks," he mumbled, brushing past me to stand in front of Iruka-sensei before forming the hand seals. "Transform!"

There was a puff of smoke which followed by an eerie silence.

I blinked.

…

He did _not_ just transform into a naked woman.

I was just seeing things, right?

...

Iruka nose bled and fell backwards when the transformed Naruto blew him a kiss.

OK then, maybe I wasn't just seeing things.

I looked at him, somewhat impressed. Not a lot of people had the guts to do that. Naruto was very gutsy. Very gutsy indeed. Two pranks in one day. Two _good_ pranks in on day.

Naruto changed back to his normal self and started laughing his head off. Several students laughed along with him. Those students were a minority. The rest of them either ignored Naruto's prank, looked nervous or chastised him for goofing off again.

"I call it 'Sexy no Jutsu'!" Naruto snickered.

"You moron!" yelled Iruka-sensei, whacking him on the head. "Stop inventing stupid jutsus!"

Eh.

I think the main reason Iruka-sensei was mad was because he actually reacted to the 'stupid jutsu'. Worse- his students had witnessed him nosebleed after the seeing the jutsu. Which meant Iruka really was a pervert.

I rolled my eyes.

Class was dismissed by the time everyone had the chance to perform the transformation jutsu.

"You ready for the exam tomorrow?" asked Choji looking at me, jittery.

Was he worried? I looked at him pensively, trying to find the right words to reassure him.

"It'll be easy don't worry. Most people will pass," I said. "Tadashi told me it's a two part test. The first part is a short written exam. In the second part they'll ask you to perform a jutsu for them. It's most likely to be either the transformation or clone technique since they are considered the hardest E-rank techniques."

Choji looked reassured. He was good at those two techniques.

The test itself didn't sound very hard. It was almost too easy. Clone technique and a quiz? Even Shikamaru would suspect there was a catch. Nothing in the shinobi life was easy. This exam was contradictory to everything we had ever learned.

"I'll have to study hard tonight then," said Choji, determination blazing in his eyes.

I smiled at him, patting his head endearingly.

We stopped walking so that Choji and Shikamaru could wait for their parents to pick them up.

I wondered why my parents let _me_ walk home by myself... I mean, they had left me to walk around Konoha alone since I was pretty young. I mean seriously, I could of gotten kidnapped! Maybe they were just convinced nothing wrong would happen. Maybe I just had odd parents.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" I smiled, waving before heading home.

Tomorrow was going to be interesting indeed.

.

* * *

.

"Now that you have finished the written portion of the exam, we will now proceed to the second part," said Iruka-sensei holding up a clipboard. "When your name is called, come to the next room. The final exam will be on the clone jutsu."

My eyes flickered to Naruto who had responded strongly to that last part.

I frowned. Wasn't he exceptionally good at making clones? I shrugged the thought away- I had to worry about doing my best. I wouldn't let my mind get sidetracked.

.

"You now will perform the clone jutsu. You can make as many as you can- the number doesn't really matter," said Iruka-sensei looking at me. "Whenever you're ready."

I eyed the hidden leaf forehead protectors lined up on the table in front of Iruka and two other teachers. They were new and shiny. There weren't many left but I knew one of them was going to be mine. It had to.

I formed the hand seals and concentrated my chakra flow- not too much but not too little.

Three clones appeared lined up next to me, all exact replicas of me. Three seemed like a good number of clones to make since most students could make that many.

"Good job Ren," said Mizuki-sensei, smiling at me.

Mizuki-sensei was a nice teacher just like Iruka-sensei- though something in his chakra perturbed me.

"You passed, congratulations!" smiled Iruka-sensei. "We'll put your name in the roster of passing students. There will be thorough deliberation before you get placed in your genin team."

He handed me one of the forehead protectors. I accepted it gladly.

"Don't forget to give in your ninja registration form next week with your ninja ID," he reminded me.

I smiled proudly, bowing quickly before exiting.

Many students were crowded outside accompanied by their gushing proud parents. I spotted my father underneath the tree.

Tying my new forehead protector around my neck, I walked over happily to him.

"I see you passed," my father said smiling.

Even though he didn't let on as much as the other parents, his eyes were shrouded with pride. I smiled at that. I've always loved it when Dad was proud of me.

"So we can go get dango right?" I asked hopefully.

I really did loved that stuff.

He chuckled but took me by the hand and started walking toward the shop.

.

Mom had been really proud of me as well. Tadashi had even given me these small hoop earrings that he got from one of his missions in the Land of Lightning.

I changed the standard outfit I wore while at the Academy into a cream colored sleeveless shirt and marine blue shorts for the occasion. I continued to bandage my forearms and legs, keeping the dark blue leg warmers and black sleeveless gloves.

I was now a ninja of the Hidden Leaf.

Orientation would be held tomorrow- which was when I would finally know which genin team I would get placed in.

But that was tomorrow. As of now, I was currently sitting in front of the Hokage and his assistant being interrogated.

I hadn't ever seen the Hokage this close up before. I had always seen him from a distance at assemblies and official stuff like that. Now that I had gotten a real good look at him, I noticed that he really did look like a gramps. Wrinkled lines defined his face while his white goatee made his face look longer. And was that a wart? This was supposed to be the strongest shinobi of the village right? Hmm... I wondered how fast he could run with those fragile bones.. And the smoking wouldn't help him with his stamina either.

"Your hobbies are training, reading, and playing shogi with Nara Shikamaru..." the Hokage read off. "Favorite food... seaweed onigri, apples, and dango... Hmm... Everything seems to be in order."

I smiled politely at him.

"Now I'll have to ask you some questions.." he said, looking at me from under his hat.

More questions? That registration form had been full of questions. He basically already knew everything about me just by reading it.

"Why is it you want to become a Konoha leaf ninja?"

Trick question? Was this a trick question?

"I want to be a Konoha leaf ninja to serve my village."

That seemed like a good answer. It was the truth too. There were of course, other reasons I wanted to become a ninja but those things I exactly feel like sharing.

He nodded, and looked through a couple papers clicking his tongue.

"I've been informed that you've been training with Sarutobi Asuma."

Oh?

This interested me. Did Asuma mention me? Or did he find out from my dad? Or maybe from that creepy crystal ball of his? Maybe it was just common knowledge.

"Yes Hokage-sama. I've been training with him since I was... five? I don't really remember. I was really young."

The day I first met Asuma seemed very far away now. Memories of my childhood were pretty blurry. Almost like a dream.

There was a silence and I assumed he expected me to explain... Explain what?

"We train mainly taijutsu though he has taught me some ninjutsu. He's a very good teacher," I said. I couldn't help but smile when I thought about him.

I hadn't seen him around these past two weeks but I bet he was probably busy getting ready for his new genin team. Which I wouldn't be on. Grunt.

"I see. And what career as a ninja do you wish to take?" Hokage-sama asked me, nodding.

"I want to become a jounin, that much is certain."

Jounin was a no brainer. I would then be able to go on A-ranked missions. Sometimes even S-ranked. I would only be able to call myself strong when the Hokage would appoint me jounin. Never before that.

I hadn't really thought about it beyond that... ANBU? Hunter-nin? Medical-nin? Intelligence division? Maybe not the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad though- killing mercilessly wasn't very appealing.

"Interesting," the Hokage said, exhaling some smoke from his pipe. "I'll be interested to see your growth as a ninja."

I smiled while eyeing the pipe reproachfully. I had gotten used to the smell of smoke ever since I had started training with Asuma-sensei, but that didn't mean I liked it. In fact, because of Asuma-sensei I was inhaling second hand smoke.

Maybe smoking was some sort of family tradition or something. I stood up, being dismissed, and bowed before leaving the room.

.

* * *

.

It was weird being back at the Academy since we had all technically graduated.

Things had changed though. They were slight changes. But still perceptible.

Not only were the children being unusually noisy, they were twice as confident as they had been before. Too much confidence was always a bad thing.

"This sucks," I said pouting, crossing my arms.

"_Naruto_ somehow passed the graduation exam..." groaned Shikamaru, plopping down on the seat next to me.

I looked over at Naruto who was sitting next to Sasuke. He looked pretty darn happy.

I smiled despite myself. The odd duckling. Here against all odds. He never failed to impress me.

I frowned suddenly, getting a weird feeling. It felt like chakra particles were suspended in the air in the classroom.

I reached my hand up wiggling my fingers around trying to get a good feel. There was definitely an intruding chakra in the air. It was faint, but it was there.

Kind of reminded me of purple cushions and smoke. Which in turn reminded me of ..Hokage-sama? Why would his chakra be lingering in the classroom? It's not like he was here, concealed watching us... Right?

Whatever.

"I'M FIRST!"

I jumped, lowering my arm and turned to stare at Ino and Sakura who were basically shoving each other to get through the doorway. I sighed.

To them, everything was a competition.

Everything.

The worst part was that they seemed to be equal in everything. Speed, taijutsu... Though I think Ino was slightly better at ninjutsu than Sakura while Sakura was better at written exams than Ino. Overall, they were pretty evenly matched.

I watched impassively as Sakura knocked Naruto out of his seat to talk to Sasuke. Eek. This wasn't going to end well, I could feel it.

I decided to watch though, for my personal amusement.

"I was here first Ino- _pig_!" shouted Sakura.

"I arrived in the classroom first _billboard brow_!" Ino yelled back, using Sakura's respective nickname.

Soon a group of girls started crowding around them all claiming to have arrived first. All wanting to get to sit next to Sasuke.

I giggled. All this commotion in order to sit next to one guy? I was pretty sure any normal girl would have been more discreet in showing their feelings. Maybe the rule 'first come, first served' was applied in every situation for them.

Suddenly, Naruto got up on the desk, crouching in front of Sasuke, glaring at him.

Eh?

_Now_ what?

My eyes widened considerably when the guy seated in front of Sasuke elbowed Naruto, making Naruto fall directly onto Sasuke. Their lips connected with a smack.

...

I started grinning despite myself. This was a whole lot funnier than Naruto transforming into a naked girl! Ha! This was gold. Very good blackmail material.

The fan girls weren't very pleased by this, to say the least. As a result of their anger, Naruto was beat up pretty badly. I could already spot a couple bruises forming in a yellow-ish color. Shouldn't they have beat up the guy that pushed Naruto instead? That seemed much more logical. It's not like Naruto wanted to fall into Sasuke... Right?

Right.

"As of today you are all ninjas," said Iruka-sensei after the class had quieted down. "But you are still genin- first level ninjas. The hard part has just started. All the genin will be grouped into three man squads, each squad being lead by a jounin- an elite ninja."

Jounin, huh? I wondered who I would get... Though I had my suspicions..

"I wonder who's going to be on Sasuke-kun's team," wondered Ino, who had taken a seat on the other side of Shikamaru.

"I don't know," whispered back Sakura, who was seated right in front of Ino.

"We wanted each squad to be balanced in strength," continued Iruka-sensei.

Which made sense. What one partner lacked the other teammates would make up for.

Iruka-sensei started reading off the teams from his clipboard and it all became relatively clear which team I was going to be placed on.

...

I _knew_ the gods had it out for me.

...

"Team 7, Tanaka Ren, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke."

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* * *

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A/N: I know.

I know, ok?

Team 7 was a bit obvious wasn't it? But I thought long and hard about it and there really wasn't any other logical choice! Maybe putting Ren in a completely different OC team was another logical choice, but eek! That would have made too many complications. And now that she's on Team 7 I won't have too much trouble sticking to the canon plot. Plus, most of your suggestions told me to put her on Team 7 as well.

-Thank you for your reviews/ views. I really like reading your suggestions for this story (:

-Next chapter: The Bell Test!


	12. Chapter 11: The Bell Test

_If you got a second chance at life what would you do?_

_._

* * *

- Chapter 11: The Bell Test -

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* * *

.

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

.

"We'll introduce the jounin senseis this afternoon. Take a break until then," announced Iruka-sensei before dismissing us.

My mind reeled.

I had about two hours before I had to come back to meet with my new sensei. I looked over to spot Shika and Chouji sitting down to eat with Ino. I frowned a bit at this.

Shika and Chouji had never had any other friends of female gender before me. What if Ino replaced me as their new best friend? We wouldn't be seeing each other as frequently now that we had been seperated into different genin teams.

That was impossible.

Right?

I shook the thought away, I had other more important things to worry about.

I closed my eyes and tried to prioritize internally.

First things first- I had to find the Hokage. There was no way I was going to stay on Team 7 if I could help it. Team 7 was synonymous to death. I mean, if I remembered correctly, I would have to face Zabuza, Orochimaru and the Akatsuki all in my first year as a _genin_. That alone was enough excitement to last any ninja a lifetime.

The Hokage Tower was right next to the Academy so I didn't have to walk that far. I headed for the reception desk and asked the chuunin there to see the Hokage.

"Unfortunately the Hokage has left the building and won't be back until later."

I left the building annoyed.

The Hokage could be anywhere! Konoha was very, _very_ big. This would take a lot longer than expected now that I had to track the Hokage down. I was lucky that I remembered his chakra signature from my previous encounter with him so that I could use his chakra to hunt him down.

It was pretty complicated trying to find him in the mass of Konoha's population. I walked quickly through the streets trying to pin point the Hokage's chakra source. The only people I had tried to locate via their chakra were Shika, Dad, Mom, Tadashi and Chouji. I was accustomed to their chakra. Trying to locate them was a lot easier than trying to find the Hokage, who's chakra felt unfamiliar.

I finally caught wisps of his chakra near an apartment building. I quickly ran to it's source.

I certainly didn't want him to leave now that I had finally found him.

"Hokage-sama!" I exclaimed, finding him in the hallway.

I watched his figure turn toward me with a look of surprise on his face.

"Ren Tanaka? I didn't expect you to see you here.." he said as I approached him.

"Hokage-sama I can't be on Team 7!" I said hastily, getting straight to the point.

I waited for his response. His face stayed pensive as he puffed out some smoke from his pipe.

"And why is that?" he asked, looking at me thoughtfully.

Why didn't I want to be on Team 7?

If I told him the truth he wouldn't believe me.. and even if he did then I would risk having him finding out that I was from another world. The real world. Then I would be forced to reveal the future. I would be used as military intelligence. That was not really a desirable thought.

"Because I don't work well if the Uchiha!" I blurted out.

Which could be translated as: the Uchiha was an asshole.

"And Uzumaki is too big a handful."

Which could be translated as: Uzumaki was brash, loud and uncalculating.

"I see... I'm sorry but the teams are final. You three compliment each other well even if you are not of the same opinion."

I frowned. I guess I really couldn't change anything. If the Hokage couldn't switch me out of the team, then no one else could. I was stuck with Sasuke and Naruto. I just hoped that we still got Kakashi as a jounin sensei. He was in my opinion the most skilled jounin all around. He would be able to make me become stronger. He would help me accomplish my goals.

"I understand Hokage-sama," I said resignedly, bowing.

The Hokage spared me a small smile before using what I recognized to be as the body flicker technique to leave.

Great.

I had about forty-five minutes to spare since I had spent most of the time trying to locate the Hokage.

I decided to go train some before going to meet up with the rest of my new teammates. Forty-five minutes meant that I had enough time for a quick warm up and some taijutsu exercises. I headed toward the training grounds thinking about what would become of me now that I had signed my death sentence.

.

* * *

.

I arrived an hour later than I had planned. Training had gotten the better of me and I had lost track of time. I sincerely hoped I had Kakashi as a jounin sensei. If I was late he was sure to arrive even later. Right? Maybe his tardiness was exaggerated from real life. Which meant I was really screwed.

I quickly hopped in the classroom, the rendez-vous spot, using the back window. I looked around and confirmed my suspicions.

Sasuke ans Naruto were the only two people left in the entire building. I couldn't even trace any signs of Iruka-sensei.

There really wasn't any doubt about it.

Kakashi was our new sensei.

Both jumped a little when I made my presence known by landing loudly on a desk. They should really learn to be more aware of their surroundings. What if I had been an enemy? I made a mental note to sneak up on them as much as possible to practice their reflexes.

"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Naruto accusingly, pointing a finger in my direction as I made my way to the front of the classroom.

Way to point out the obvious.

I didn't feel like justifying myself anyway. Knowing Naruto, it would just provoke him to ask even more questions that I didn't feel like answering.

"Is our sensei here yet?" I asked him, sitting down on one of the front desks.

"Well, no.." he responded.

I shrugged my shoulders and started meditating.

"I don't understand why our sensei is the only one not here!" cried out Naruto who had started pacing. "All of the other teams have gone off with their teachers on some cool adventure.. even Iruka-sensei left."

Even though my eyes were closed, I could visualize every move Naruto made. Training blindfolded with Asuma-sensei had made it easier to rely on just my hearing.

Training blindfolded was one of Asuma-sensei's best ideas yet. Not only did it help me anticipate my opponent's movements but made me immune to any visual illusions. Closing my eyes erased all visual illusions.

Naruto was easy to read since his movements weren't at all light or quiet. Sparring blindfolded with someone like Asuma-sensei was a lot trickier because he was mostly silent when he moved.

"You think our teacher, an elite ninja, would fall for that?" asked Sasuke, which finally caused me to open my eyes.

Naruto had placed the blackboard eraser between the door opening. The classic prank.

Normally I would have agreed with Sasuke. An elite ninja was not supposed to fall for that kind of childish and obvious trap.

I giggled lightly... To think that Kakashi had fallen for that trap... Sometimes the obvious things weren't that obvious.

Or maybe he had fallen for that trap on purpose to lull us into a false sense of security. That sounded a lot more like something Kakashi would do.

I suddenly felt another chakra signature approaching. I stood up straighter and tried to analyze it.

It felt loyal but distant.. sort of like a wall was blocking me from delving deeper into its contents. It reminded me of a heavy mist. The kind where the further you ventured, the thicker the mist would become.

His chakra was layered, just like the Hokage's. 'Layered' chakra was harder to read than simple chakra. Asuma-sensei also had layered chakra but a lot less intricate to decipher than Kakashi's.

His footsteps drew nearer until his head poked in.

The eraser fell and connected with his head but I didn't really pay attention to that. All I could was closely study his face.

Wow... hair really could stick up that way!

My eyes went back to inspect his face. Or rather what could be seen of his face since his mask covered about ¾ of his face. He looked handsome enough. The visible part of his face was smooth and scar and wrinkle free.

He looked a lot older than I expected him to look. Wasn't he only supposed to be 26 or something? Maybe his grayish-whitish hair gave that impression. War and battles seemed to have aged him internally too.

This was Hatake Kakashi right? As it finally registered that the famous Copy Cat ninja was standing in front of me, my eyes analyzed him further, trying to find a hint that would tell me that this was the same guy who had killed countless of criminals. The same guy who became a jounin at the age of thirteen.

I found nothing.

If I hadn't seen the manga or the anime beforehand, or even the outdated picture in Konoha's archives, I would have had no clue that this was really Kakashi. _The _Kakashi.

"HA HA HA HA HA! YOU FELL FOR IT!" cackled Naruto, doubling over and laughing hysterically.

I blinked a couple times looking over at Sasuke to see his reaction.

It was easy to see that he was surprised- I didn't even have to read into his chakra to figure that much out. Knowing him, he was probably severely doubting our new sensei's capacities.

Kakashi picked up the blackboard eraser from the ground and looked us over.

"Hmm... my first impression of this group is..." he started, taking a deliberately long pause. "I don't like you."

_Great_.

"Follow me up to the rooftop you all!" he said before using the body flicker technique to disappear.

I contemplated using the same jutsu as well but in the end decided to follow Naruto and Sasuke up the stairs the old fashioned way. I didn't like using the body flicker technique anyway.

Once we had finally reached the top, Kakashi instructed us to all sit down in front of him. I decided to sit between Naruto and Sasuke, hoping to appease the tension between the two rivals.

"Let's begin introductions.." started Kakashi in a bored voice.

Everything about Kakashi screamed 'I'm bored' ... his voice, his expression, his body language... I briefly wondered if it was just a facade or if he really was that bored. Personally, I think compared to whatever team he had tested before, ours was probably to more exciting. I mean, the team consisted of the spontaneous and loud Naruto who happened to have the Kyuubi sealed within him and the brooding Uchiha prodigy, the last of his clan. And both of them hated each other's guts. Pretty entertaining in my opinion.

"What do you want to know?" asked Naruto.

"How about your likes, dislikes and dreams for the future... stuff like that."

"Why don't you go first to show us how it's done!" Naruto exclaimed, looking at Kakashi-sensei expectantly.

"Oh.. me? Well my name is Hatake Kakashi... My likes and dislikes? Hm... You're a bit too young to know about those... Dreams for the future... Hmm... As for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies..."

_I'm sure._

"All you really told us was your name!" said Naruto looking confused.

"Hm. He should have added he had a habit of being late," I added as an afterthought.

Kakashi pretended not to hear me.

"Hatake Kakashi..." I said quietly.

There were just so many things he could have at least said about himself. I had read his files in the Konoha Library Archives (his public files- I didn't have access to more detailed information). Most of the stuff was public knowledge anyway. He could have at least said that stuff.

I mean the guy is known across every nation for his skills and all he has to say about himself is 'My name is Hatake Kakashi'?

"The lazy pervert..." I mused, giggling a little.

I supposed the nickname Asuma-sensei gave him was true enough.

"I'm sorry?" he asked looking at me, an eyebrow raised.

There really was something uncomfortable about having someone observe you with only one eye..

"Er.. did I say that out loud?" I asked, embarrassed.

My teammates looked at me strangely. I was always discreet and quiet in class so I guess they hadn't expected me to call our new sensei any sort of names. That was more of a Naruto move to pull. But it wasn't like I had wanted to insult him.

"Pervert?" asked Naruto looking at me wide eyed.

I opened my mouth to explain but Kakashi cut me off before I had the chance to explain.

"Why don't you go first then since you have a lot of things to say..." he said looking at me pointedly.

"My name's Ren. I enjoy training, reading, playing shogi, and eating dango," I started as professionally as I could.

"I dislike many things. My dreams for the future are .. none of your business," I finished lamely.

What were my dreams? My goals? Apart from saving Asuma-sensei and becoming stronger, what did I strive for? The question irritated me because I couldn't come up with an answer.

"Interesting," he said although his voice led to believe he thought otherwise.

Looking over to Naruto he said, "Why don't you go next, the one in the orange."

The one in the orange? Couldn't he call Naruto by his name? He obviously already knew all our names and had probably read our ninja files. This whole introduction thing was unnecessary.

"Yes sir!" he grinned. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! What I like is instant ramen in a cup! What I really like is when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen! But I hate the three minutes that you have to wait after pouring the water in the ramen cup. My hobbies are eating different types of ramen and comparing them and also pulling pranks. And my dream... is to become the greatest Hokage ever so the people of this village will acknowledge my existence and stop disrespecting me!"

I smiled at him after his little speech. He even had the pose down and everything. So typical of him.

"Next," said Kakashi-sensei, scratching his gray (or was it white?) hair.

We all looked at Sasuke who was back to his why-are-you-wasting-my-time demeanor.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. What I have is not a dream but an ambition because I will make it a reality... The resurrection of my clan and … to kill a certain man."

Even though I already knew all this, it was still disturbing to hear such twisted thoughts come out of his mouth.

Ninja in ANBU usually became crazy after a couple years of heavy duty killing... but if you still hadn't made your first kill and were already messed up... You would eventually become some S-ranked criminal who had defected from the village or some lunatic locked up in an asylum. If they had bothered to check Sasuke's mental state before making him a ninja maybe he wouldn't have become that screwed up in the future.

And anyways, I didn't want him to kill Itachi at all. He would spend his entire life trying to kill his brother and then come to regret it afterwards. It was sad, really.

Back in my old life, I respected Itachi immensely. When I had actually seen him in person however... I wouldn't know exactly how to explain it. I reacted to his chakra. It had never happened since. Sometimes I felt myself wondering about it- trying to find scientific and reasonable explanations- but came up with nothing. Why him? Would I still react to his chakra if I encountered him again? Would I react like that faced with someone else?

"Good. You're each unique and have your own ideas," said Kakashi, snapping me out of my train of thoughts. "Tomorrow we'll be starting our first mission as a team!"

"Oh boy! What kind of mission?" whooped Naruto, excited again.

"We're going to be doing something with just the four of us."

"What is it? Huh, what is it?" exclaimed Naruto impatiently.

"A survival exercise," said our new sensei, his features sobering.

"A survival exercise?" whined Naruto. "We already did all that stuff at the Academy! I want a real mission!"

"Yes, but this time _I_ will be your opponent. It won't be like your other normal training," he said before starting to chuckle.

Was he trying to intimidate us? Hn. Might have worked on me if I didn't already know the outcomes of the future.

"What's so funny? I don't get it.." said Naruto with a confused face.

"Uh well... if I tell you you're not going to like it," he teased.

".. Not going to like it?" wondered Naruto out loud, still looking confused.

"Well, out of all the graduates of your year only nine will become genin. The rest will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words this is a make-it or break-it test. I decide if you pass or not. This training is very difficult and not for the kind hearted."

I stared.

It was definitely a front. Acting so carefree... His personality was like that mask he wore- you had to take it off to see the real him. At least, that's what I supposed.

Kakashi laughed some more after seeing our reactions, "I told you you wouldn't like it!"

"Wha- WHAT? Then what was the point of graduating? We worked so hard!" protested, Naruto outraged.

I noted that Sasuke had clenched his fists and his knuckles were turning white.

"Oh... that?" Kakashi paused a little before answering. "That was only to see who had the capacities to become genin... Or not."

"Tell me you're joking!" Naruto yelled, still looking disbelieving.

I looked quickly at Sasuke who hadn't uttered a word since his introduction. He looked pretty much like he usually did but on closer observation you could tell he was stressing out a little too. I didn't even need to tap into his chakra to read him- his eyes wandered a little more than usual and his foot was tapping the floor lightly in an irregular manner.

"You'll be graded tomorrow on the training field so you have to show your real abilities if you want to pass," said Kakashi and I somehow I felt like he was talking about me.

But there was no way he knew of my real abilities. Right? He hadn't seen me train before so he could only judge me by my Academy grades that were nothing spectacular in taijutsu and ninjutsu. Unless he knew that I was the one training with Asuma-sensei. I hoped not. I was planning on using the element of surprise on him but if he already had his guard up against me I was done for.

Kakashi rose up and handed each of us a piece of paper before turning to leave.

"The details are on here. Be at the designated area at 5 am. Bring all your ninja gear," he said before adding "Oh and you might want to skip breakfast or you'll throw up."

He vanished and Sasuke quickly got up to leave as well. I followed him out but headed towards the training ground instead of going straight home.

I was lucky Kakashi had chosen the third training ground as the place of our survival training.

I had basically grown up on that training ground, going there regularly with Asuma-sensei. I knew the grounds and its surroundings like the back of my hand so I could use my knowledge to my advantage.

The smart thing to do was always scout out the area of battle for traps and things like that. The others should have come to at least familiarize themselves with the training ground. Sasuke would probably be walking on unfamiliar territory since he most likely practiced in his clan compound. I had no idea about Naruto though. I sighed.

I had about two hours before Mom expected me back home for dinner. I sat down and began to concentrate. I had to mentally think up my battle strategics which would take longer than usual since I now had to incorporate Naruto and Sasuke into the picture. Might as well get comfortable.

After a good amount of time had passed by, I pulled out two scrolls and summoned a couple of wire strings and kunai.

I was going up against Hatake Kakashi. Might as well make some early preparations.

.

* * *

.

During dinner, I announced that my sensei was Kakashi and not Asuma like I had hoped.

I didn't miss the quick look my parents had exchanged. Kakashi-sensei was after all considered one of the strictest instructors. None of his students had ever passed before.

"We have a survival training tomorrow. You know, the famous make-it or break-it test."

"Tomorrow? So soon? Are you ready?" asked Tadashi before going back to eating his food.

"I guess. He said we're supposed to show our 'real skills' tomorrow. Does that mean I can bring my katana?"

"Yes," stated Mom immediately. "You don't have to hold back with him."

I nodded, "I just don't want to cause any jealousy on my team. That wouldn't be a good idea seeing as my team isn't very... functional."

It was the same reason I held back around Tadashi. Jealousy among siblings was common but I certainly didn't want that jealousy to turn into hate.

"How so?" asked Dad, who looked interested.

He must already know who my teammates are. He was a jounin after all. And jounin's had a way with information.

"Well for one, my teammates don't get along at all. One's really loud and impulsive and the other is irrational and anti-social. They're like undeclared eternal rivals. I don't want them to start a rivalry with me as well."

"I see..." said Mom, chuckling.

Psh. She probably thought the whole jealousy thing was cute. It ran much deeper than that though- something no one really understood. I didn't even understand it well.

"Who's on your team again?" asked Tadashi, his mouth full of food.

I frowned a little disgusted by his bad manners (even after all these years he still ate like a pig) before answering.

"I have the Uchiha and the Uzumaki on my team," I said groaning.

Those two would be the death of me in this life, I could already tell.

"..An interesting combination," said Dad before I snorted.

"I think it's because Sasuke has the best taijutsu and ninjutsu scores and I have the best written scores. It balances out, since you know, Naruto has the lowest scores all over."

"Well, just be careful.. I don't want you to get hurt," said Mom and I understood her underlying message.

"It's my duty as a ninja of Konoha to be ready to risk my life for my village. There's really no need to worry about me," I said.

I was doing enough worrying by myself.

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* * *

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I woke up the next day, excited for the day that lay in front of me.

I made sure to eat a healthy breakfast full of proteins- I definitely needed to be energized if I planned on passing this test.

I packed my traveling bad with equipment I deemed useful; storage scrolls that held different kinds of weapons in each one, soldier pills, wire strings, explosive tags, healing herbs and added two energy bars as an afterthought in case my teammates had skipped out on breakfast.

Which they probably did.

Idiots.

Nobody should go on a mission on an empty stomach. That was common knowledge. What if this survival training had lasted the entire day or worse- a couple days? Then what would they have done? Kakashi-sensei didn't look like the time to feed us food.

I sighed and headed to the training grounds after saying goodbye to my dad who was the only one awake.

When I got there it was still dark outside.

"Hi," I said before sitting down, not really expecting an answer from any of them.

Naruto looked like a walking zombie and I doubted he had even heard me. I started my yoga warm-up exercises that I had skipped out on before leaving the house.

After forty-five minutes I looked at my teammates. Naruto had gone to sleep and Sasuke was as stoic as ever.

With Kakashi as our sensei we probably still had a lot of time to spare before he actually showed up. Practicing ninjutsu and genjutsu was probably a bad idea because I couldn't afford to foolishly waste my chakra before the actual bell test began. Especially if I wanted my plan to work.

After a while, Naruto stirred.

"Sensei still not here yet?" he asked, eyes half closed.

"Nope," I answered. "But this would be a bad time for him to arrive. Your senses have dulled out."

"What? My senses are perfectly fine!" said Naruto, bottom lip sticking out.

"If you say so," I said sighing.

We waited for our teacher to show up in silence.

"Hey guys good morning!" he said, waving at us.

"YOU'RE LATE!" yelled Naruto, pointing accusingly at him.

"Well you see a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way..." he explained, scratching the back of his neck.

We all stared at him.

That was such a lame excuse. Even if he had taken the longest route he still wouldn't be _six_ hours late! He was a jounin and even a normal civilian wouldn't take that long.

What _did _Kakashi-sensei do? I remembered vaguely that it had something to do with Obito. Obito? I decided I would forgive him then. Only just a little.

He cleared his throat after taking note of Naruto's furious grunts and Sasuke's mad aura. He walked over to a tree stump and placed an alarm clock on top of it.

"It's set for noon," he said before pulling out two bells attached by a red string. "Your assignment is very simple. You have to get these two bells from me before noon."

Great. Thanks to his late arrival we only had roughly an hour left.

"Those who fail to get a bell before noon get tied to one of those stumps," he explained, pointing to the three training targets. "They will get no lunch. Not only that but they'll have to watch as I eat my lunch in front of them."

I heard a gurgling noise and turned towards its source.

"Naruto... was that your stomach?" I asked.

"So what if it is? I haven't had anything to eat since last night!"

"You seriously skipped breakfast? I would have expected you out of all people to have-" I stopped mid-sentence, realizing that I had some food for him.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the two energy bars. Naruto would work a lot better if he had some food in his belly. As would Sasuke.

"Take this," I said frowning before shoving each of my teammates a bar. "We're a team now and I certainly don't want any of you slowing me down."

Naruto cast me a strange look before munching down his bar. Sasuke looked dubiously but I guess his hunger got the best of him because his energy bar disappeared after a couple of mouthfuls. I finally looked over at Kakashi who was sending annoyed vibes in my direction. Guess I just hindered part of his plan. If I was going to be sent back to The Academy at least I could be proud of doing that.

"Are you done?" he asked before continuing. "Well as you can see there are only two bells... so at least one of you will get tied to a slump. That person will be disqualified for failing the mission and will be sent back to the Academy! Then again... all three of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons including shuriken. If you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to get the bells."

"Are you sure sensei? I mean, you couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser! You'll get killed!" laughed Naruto, not taking Kakashi-sensei seriously.

Sasuke stayed quiet but seemed to silently agree with him.

"In the real world those with no talent often bark the loudest. Well ignore Mr. Dead Last and when I say sta-"

I felt it before it happened. Naruto had charged forward impulsively toward Kakashi with a kunai. I jumped back a little, not wanting to get in the way.

In a flash, Kakashi had Naruto immobilized in an intermediate defensive position.

To an untrained eye, it would have appeared as if Kakashi vanished and reappeared. That wasn't the case however. Kakashi was fast and he wasn't even using his full speed.

"Calm down there. I didn't even say 'start' yet. But it seems you're finally prepared to come at me with the intent to kill me... So you've finally acknowledged me? Hehe, I think I'm finally starting to like you guys," said Kakashi, releasing his hold on Naruto. "OK let's get going then. Ready... Begin!"

All three of us kicked off from where we were standing and went to go hide somewhere in the foliage of the trees.

I found a good spot on a large branch not too far from Kakashi's current position, hidden behind a curtain of large leaves. I cloaked my chakra to make sure Kakashi couldn't easily find me- although if he put some effort in it I was sure he would have no trouble finding me.

Closing my eyes and concentrating I could sense Sasuke's chakra up in a tree about fifty steps east from where I was at. Kakashi still hadn't moved and Naruto was-

"COME HERE AND FIGHT ME!" shouted Naruto confidently, standing twenty some paces right in front of Kakashi.

My eyes snapped open and I blinked a couple times hoping I was just imagining things. He couldn't be that careless could he? He wasn't even a genin yet for crying out loud! And here he was challenging a _jounin_.

"You know... Compared to the others, you're a little weird," said Kakashi while I face palmed.

"YEAH RIGHT! THE ONLY WEIRD THING HERE IS YOUR HAIRCUT!"

Oh, so now he adding insults too. This wasn't going to end well. I might as well go and help him.

"Shinobi lesson number one: taijutsu," said Kakashi, stopping me from jumping down and helping Naruto. "Let me teach you about it.

If they started to actually fight now, me joining in the fight would just confuse Naruto not help him.

I watched as he pulled out a familiar looking orange book. I groaned. Now he was just provoking Naruto.

"What are you waiting for? Make your move," incited Kakashi.

"But- Wha- What's with the book?" said Naruto, looking more confused than ever.

"I want to know what happens next. But don't worry- with your weak attacks it won't matter if I'm reading or whatever."

Yep, he was definitely provoking Naruto. It seemed to work too because Naruto started to attack Kakashi, yelling something about demolishing him.

I watched as Naruto got his ass handed to him. On a silver platter.

"A shinobi isn't supposed to let his enemies get behind him, idiot," said Kakashi, crouching behind Naruto.

His hands formed the seal of the tiger- the seal commonly affiliated with fire jutsus.

"Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu! A thousand years of pain!" said Kakashi as he poked Naruto's... butt?

I watched as Naruto flew up in the air only to land in the river.

Damn that was one powerful ass poke. Probably infused with chakra judging by the distance Naruto had traveled and the height he was thrown up at.

Suddenly two shuriken barged out of the water heading towards Kakashi. The guy didn't even blink as he caught them with two fingers still reading that perverted book of his.

Hn. Kakashi was a lot more of a show off than I remembered him to be...

Naruto dragged himself out of the water and tried to surprise him with a shadow clone attack. The plan was very good in theory and might have worked if Kakashi had stayed still and continued not to attack. But he didn't and instead used a replacement technique.

Then it all just went downhill from there.

I sighed, jumping down from my hiding place to go free Naruto from the most obvious trap in the history of trap making.

Kakashi appeared before me however, and stooped down to pick back up the bell he had used as bait.

"Think before using a jutsu or it could be used against you.. And if the bait is obvious don't take it. A ninja must be able to see what's underneath the underneath."

"I GET THAT!" yelled Naruto angrily swinging from side to side upside down.

Um.. obviously not.

"I'm telling you this because you obviously don't," sighed Kakashi and looked at me finally acknowledging my presence.

"Oh? Have you come here to challenge me to a fight too? I just hope you're a better opponent than the last one I fought."

"No," I said, rolling my eyes.

He was pretty skilled, Kakashi was, in manipulating people to do things. He had just offered me a challenge I was supposed to be unable to refuse. He wanted me to fight him so he could get this over with.

"I just came here to untie Naruto."

"Oh?" he repeated, this time looking genuinely interested.

"But why? Why are you helping me?" asked Naruto, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Are you complaining?" I asked disbelieving.

I was going to help him and here he was questioning me. Hn.

"Don't you want to try to get a bell?" asked Kakashi, flicking a bell temptingly. "You only have until noon."

Again, with the sly manipulation.

"We'll fight later since I think Sasuke wants a go at you."

Sure enough, five shuriken appeared and made impact with Kakashi, knocking him over. I quickly stepped over his body and cut Naruto's ropes with one quick slice of my kunai.

"AHH! No way! Sasuke you bastard, you killed him!" wailed Naruto, waving his arms frantically in the direction the shuriken had come from.

"Stop fretting Naruto," I said disabling the second trap Kakashi had set up. "You're way too loud. If we were on an actual mission you would have alerted all of our enemies of our location and possibly gotten us killed."

I gestured behind me, "Replacement technique. Not as obvious as your trap, but none the less still a trap."

"A trap?" asked Naruto, looking at me wide-eyed.

"Yeah.. Sasuke's probably running for his life right now," I said. "We should go help him, no?"

"No way! Sasuke's annoying and I don't want to help him," he huffed, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Why not? We're supposed to be a team," I said exasperated.

We were wasting too much time already.

"Because I want to get a bell before him!"

"I think your main focus should just be able to get a bell."

"Like you know anything eggplant!"

…

"Look, I just helped you so you owe me. Now we're going to go find Sasuke and help him," I reasoned, choosing to ignore his old nickname for me. Tch.

"No can do! I have to-" he stopped mid-sentence his eyes lighting up. "Look since you helped me I'll let you in on my new plan OK?"

"Okay.." I said, not really liking where this was going.

"See over there?" he motioned to the memorial stone. "That's where the snacks are. I'll share some with you if you want since you helped me. Great idea right?"

.. _That_ was his great plan? …

"That's like cheating."

"So what? Kakashi-sensei isn't here so we might as well go for it!"

"No," I said, trying to convince him. "Very bad idea. He might have a shadow clone around here. If you get caught you might get immediately disqualified."

My suspicions were confirmed with a quick chakra sweep. Kakashi-sensei could conceal his chakra really well. But even if he now appeared to have the same chakra level as the surrounding plants, his chakra still reminded me of heavy mist while the other chakras had that earthy plant feel.

"Whatever," he said going off ignoring me.

_Unbelievable_.

I headed inside the forest and toward the small clearing and stood still, eyes closed, waiting.

"So are you ready to fight me now?"

"I guess I don't really have any other choice. Unless you just want to give me bell..."

"Now where's the fun in that?"

I didn't answer.

"How's Sasuke?" I asked.

How had he held up? Was he OK? I wanted to ask those questions too but didn't want to appear like some fan-girl or anything.

"Hm? Oh... Sasuke put up a better fight than Naruto. I wasn't even able to read my book. He certainly has skill... What about you? Do you think you beat me?"

No not really. Especially since Sasuke was I don't know where and Naruto was unwilling to cooperate with me. What a team.

"No... Though I would appreciate it if you put that perverted book away while fighting me," I said, my eyes finally opening.

"Oh? You find yourself as skilled as the Uchiha then? I doubt you'll do any better."

Meaning that I, unlike Sasuke, wasn't a prodigy. I wasn't special in any kind of way. I didn't come from clan, nor did I have any cool family jutsus I could use to my advantage, nor did I have huge chakra reserves like Naruto. I was plain, and plain wouldn't be able to beat him.

"I doubt any _genin_ could beat Konoha's Copy Cat ninja," I said bitterly.

"So you've heard of me," he said giving me that weird close eyed smile.

"Whatever let's just start," I grunted not wanting to stroke his ego with flatteries.

"Whenever you're ready."

I reached in my hip pouch and pulled out three storage scrolls. I quickly summoned a barrage of shuriken and aimed it at him.

Then I proceeded in summoning a dozen or so kunai and threw them where he had dodged.

Finally, I summoned my sword and flipped it in my hand making sure I had a good grip on it. I charged at him while he was busy dodging my second attack.

Fighting him while my eyes were closed enabled me to focus and aim more precisely.

"Sword, huh? Interesting. Fast as well," commented Kakashi while dodging my attacks.

I aimed a kick at his pressure point in his shoulder but he easily blocked my foot with one hand. I shifted my weight entirely onto that foot and pushed off, swiping my other foot at him aimed at the pressure point in his thigh. We continued exchanging quick blows like that for a moment but none of my attacks hit. He was fast, I could tell, but at the speed he was going at at the moment I could keep up with him.

Focusing my wind chakra into my sword I suddenly enhanced my speed some, hoping to catch him off guard.

"So you're the student Asuma's been teaching.." he commented while carefully avoiding each strike.

With my wind chakra now in use, he couldn't block my hits seeing as wind chakra could virtually cut through anything. He was forced to dodge and retreat into the very area I had rigged with traps.

I pulled on a wire string, setting in motion the trap I had put in place last night. The wire strings and fake explosive tags would keep him there for a little while before he tried to escape. Knowing him, he was probably humoring me to see what I had up my sleeve.

I hastily put my sword away and went through a set of hand seals.

"A shadow clone?" exclaimed Kakashi, sounding surprised.

"Now!" I ordered, reaching for my hip pouch.

The clone clapped once, "Wind Style: Gale Palm!"

A medium size gale appeared (my clones were still incapable of performing full forced gales). It proceeded in adding kunai, shuriken and senbon in the attack. With Kakashi temporarily stuck, it was sure to do some damage.

Before the gale hit Kakashi-sensei head on, I used chakra threads to manipulate a senbon needle. In the midst of the swirling leaves and dirt around us, the needle was basically invisible. I manipulated the string so it would cut off the bell dangling on the side of his hip. The plan was to cut it off and then use the chakra string to bring it back over to me. But it's a well known fact that things never really turn out the way you plan them.

I felt him disappear before my eyes registered he had vanished.

When the air current had died down and I could see clearly a log stood tangled in the wire strings where Kakashi had once stood. My weapons were scattered on the floor and I summoned them back into their scrolls, silently cursing.

I had no time left. Any minute now the alarm clock would -

A shrill sound pierced the air confirming my thoughts.

Not that I had any other good plan up my sleeve. I was smart, book smart. Battle strategics were more Shika's thing, even though he would never admit it.

I trudged back to the others. It was slightly enraging that I couldn't even land a decent hit on him, considering the guy was holding back, after all these years of training.

The first thing I noticed was Naruto tied up to a wooden post. I sighed. I silently wondered if he would ever listen to me. How had Sakura gotten him to listen to her (aside from being his crush and all)? All she did was punch him every time he opened his mouth. Though I guess that would be taking 'knocking some sense into him' very litterally.

I sat next to Sasuke before asking "How'd you guys do?"

Though I already knew. We had failed. All of us.

"I kicked his ass!" exclaimed Naruto unconvincingly.

"Who's ass got kicked exactly?" asked Kakashi-sensei, suddenly appearing behind us.

We all looked at Naruto who was tied helplessly to the target.

"Eh," I shrugged.

I wasn't really any better than Naruto. No bell. We were all on the same sinking boat.

"Well I've decided that there's no need for you three to go back to the Academy," announced Kakashi-sensei coming around to face us.

I could hear Sasuke's 'hn' but chose to ignore it. How could he even for one second think that he had passed? Sensei had said 'you three' which meant that he was being put in the same group as Naruto. And Naruto was tied to a post. Tch. I guess the guy had a lot more arrogance than I had credited him for.

"What! Then all three of us-"

"You guessed it. All three of you should quit at being shinobi."

Even though I knew we would eventually pass- well at least I sincerely hoped- the words still stung.

"WHAT? GIVE UP AS NINJAS?" protested Naruto, looking horrified. "OK, sure, we couldn't get any bells but... why do we have to quit? You said that if we couldn't get a bell we would be sent back to the Academy! You can't just change your mind and drop us out of the program!"

"Because," sighed Kakashi exasperated. "You guys don't think like ninja, you think like children. With that mentality you're better off not becoming ninja at all."

Before I could register what was happening, Sasuke had lunged for Kakashi. I stood unimpressed as Kakashi had, in one second, immobilized him just as easily as he had done with Naruto earlier.

What was Sasuke trying to prove now? That he could take on a jounin? That he was better than us? That he deserved to become a ninja? Was he really that dense? In a way he was just as impulsive as Naruto.

"You think it's all about you, don't you?" tsk-ed Kakashi-sensei. "Did you for one second consider why we put you in teams in the first place?"

"Huh?" asked Naruto, looking shocked.

"You guys are not understanding the answer to the test..." sighed Kakashi.

"Answer?"

"Yes, the answer that helps determine if you pass or fail..." repeated Kakashi.

"He means working together.. Putting our differences aside for the good of our mission.. Teamwork," I said finally, when no one else seemed to realize this.

"That's right. If the three of you had been working together you might have been able to get a bell from me.." he said, sighing again. "The purpose of this mission was to see if you could put your own interests aside and work together but yet... Naruto! You do everything on your own! You even refused to help Ren after she had helped you!"

Naruto frowned and looked a little shameful.

"Sasuke!" continued Kakashi-sensei. "You think that everyone is beneath you and worthless. Much too arrogant. Ren was closest to finding the answer but instead of going after to help Sasuke like she had originally planned, she stayed and fought me alone."

He looked at us warily before continuing.

"Ninja missions are carried out in squads. Sure individual skill is important but it's the teamwork that counts most. Every shinobi knows this but yet you three fail to understand this."

He got off Sasuke and walked over to the memorial stone, "Every shinobi puts their life on the line for their mission. Have you seen this stone? The names engraved on it? These are ninja who are honored as heroes in this village."

"That's it! That's it! That's it!" yapped Naruto. "I've decided I want my name engraved on that stone!"

I frowned a little. Why did he say that so cheerfully? I wanted my name carved one day on there- better to die serving my village than to die of old age- but it didn't exactly make me _happy_.

"These ninja are .. special kind of heroes.." said Kakashi, casting a look at Naruto.

"Huh? What kind of special? Tell us! Tell us!"

OK. So obviously Naruto didn't know this was a memorial stone.

"They're all K.I.A." said Kakashi after an extremely long pause.

"Ooooohhh!" exclaimed Naruto. "That's sounds real cool!"

"It means they were killed in action Naruto," I said, explaining it to him quietly. "They're all dead."

Naruto quited down considerably after that.

"This is a memorial stone. The name of my closest friends are all on here," added Kakashi-sensei before turning back to face us. "I've decided to give you guys one more chance but this time I'll make it much tougher for you guys to get the bells. I'll give you three hours to get a bell. Eat lunch now to build up strength but... Naruto doesn't get any. Take that as punishment for trying to cheat earlier. And if anyone tries to feed him, that person will immediately fail."

Naruto grunted in disapproval but didn't protest because he knew he deserved it.

"I make the rules here and you follow them, got it?" he said before disappearing.

Sasuke and I each took a bento box and dug in. I wanted to at least get some mouthfuls in before handing my lunch over to Naruto. Even if I had eaten something this morning I was still in need of some sort of energy boost.

A loud gurgling sound was emitted from my right. We looked at Naruto who laughed nervously.

"Don't mind me you guys! I could go without eating for days! Weeks! This is no problem at all!" he yelled unconvincingly as the sound of his stomach drowned out his words.

Sasuke sighed before handing his food over to Naruto, "Here."

"What?" said Naruto, disbelieving.

"Kakashi isn't here right now. Eat up now before he comes back," explained Sasuke.

Actually Kakashi was about ten feet away behind that tree but I didn't voice my thoughts out loud. It was sort of cute seing the Uchiha swallow up his pride.

"If you're weak you'll be useless and might cost us our mission, so eat up before I change my mind," ordered Sasuke shoving the food down Naruto's mouth.

OK, so maybe not as cute as I had thought.

"Just give him my food instead, I'm not that all hungry since I ate breakfast this morning unlike you brainless idiots," I said handing Sasuke my bento box.

Suddenly Kakashi chose to make his appearance- a bit too dramatically in my opinion what with all the thrashing wind and shit.

"You! You guys broke the rules! I hope you're ready for your punishment!" he bellowed before forming hand seals.

The guy could even change the weather to add dramatic effect? Quite impressive. This type of genjutsu was easy to break out of, but I decided to leave it as it was.

"I hope you're ready for the consequences!" he boomed threateningly.

"B-but y-you said t-that w-we," argued Naruto shakily.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"We're a team now! We're all in this together!" added Sasuke ten times more convincingly than Naruto had managed.

I guess this would be a bad time for a High School Musical song to pop into my head.

"If we pass we pass as a team," I said trying to find the right words, looking over at the other two. "Even if one fails it would be unfit for the others to pass as well. And anyways, teams work in four-man cells."

Kakashi looked at us for a few more seconds.

"You pass," he said smiling, releasing his drama enhancer jutsu.

I blinked a couple times at him before getting up and dusting myself off.

"Every other team I tested followed everything I said," in response to Naruto's questions. "They all fell into my traps because they were all just morons. You guys would be the first to pass. Consider yourselves special."

Special? Compared to my other two teammates, I was rather plain wasn't I? They would turn out to be two of the strongest ninja of their generation while I on the other hand didn't know how I would turn out. Did it take a disturbing and hard childhood to make a ninja strong? I wondered.

"A ninja must be able to see underneath the underneath... Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash which is true... but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash."

I smiled a little at that. Then I made the mistake of looking over at Naruto.

Was he crying?

"You know... our sensei's kinda cool.." he sniffled.

I burst out in giggles and drew a kunai to cut him loose.

"All of you pass! Team 7's duties commence tomorrow!" announced Kakashi-sensei, giving us a thumbs up pose that reminded me a little of Guy.

Shiver.

I couldn't help but grin though. I had passed this bell test and was one step closer to becoming stronger. Even if I was stuck on Team 7 I was determined to make the best out of this situation. I mean, the good thing about encountering strong, creepy criminals was that it made you stronger.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as they all say. Emphasis on the 'what doesn't kill you' part because there was no guarantee I would make it out of this alive. But what was so bad about dying? This wasn't the real world anyway. Chances were, if I died I would wake up from a weird coma in my old life. But I would play this game for a little longer.. at least until I had helped save Asuma-sensei.

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* * *

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	13. Chapter 12: Duty Calls

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

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* * *

- Chapter 12: Duty Calls

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* * *

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"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

.

I made a detour to Shika's house before heading home. There was a chance that Shikamaru was still out with his team, but knowing how Asuma-sensei liked to wrap things up quickly he probably wasn't.

I felt a twinge of jealousy thinking about Shikamaru's new team. Or, to be more precise, I didn't exactly rejoice in the idea that I was no longer Asuma's sole trainee. Asuma-sensei had become an uncle-like figure in my life and I guess I didn't want things to change. Would things change? I hoped not.

"Sooo... How did it go?" I asked him after politely greeting his mother.

"It was troublesome but we passed," he told me, leading me outside to sit on the porch.

"Congratulations! I knew you would make it!" I beamed laying down next to him. "What did you guys have to do?"

"He sparred with us for a bit to test our skills and then he asked us a question."

I looked at him in disbelief.

"So all you had to do was answer a question to pass? That's so..."

I was about to say 'unfair' but I bit my tongue. I wasn't going to question Asuma-sensei's strange methods. It's not like they had to go through some teamwork testing... They were the Ino- Shika- Chou trio. Of course they would be able to work together.

"Well at least you got Asuma as your sensei..." I said, changing the subject.

"Hm? How'd you know?" asked Shikamaru raising an eyebrow at me questionably.

"Oh? Didn't I tell you? Asuma-sensei was my jounin tutor growing up.. I really like him," I smiled. "He's good at taijutsu so he'll be able to whip you into shape!"

He probably noticed that I hadn't answered his question at all but didn't choose to probe me to answer him. It would have been too troublesome after all.

"He's also really easy to bribe," I added as an afterthought, my right hand forming an almost invisible chakra thread.

I watched as it attached itself to a fallen leaf.

"Bribe?"

"Whenever I wanted to learn a new jutsu or something I would offer in exchange two weeks worth of cigarettes," I explained. "The smoke is bound to bother you at first but you'll get used to it. Also don't ask him not to smoke or he'll make it his personal duty to smoke in your face."

I manipulated the dead leaf to float in the air while Shikamaru mumbled something about already asking him to stop this morning.

"So who have you got as a sensei?" asked Shikamaru after a quiet and calm silence.

"Hatake Kakashi."

"So you got Kakashi, eh?"

I sat up quickly, releasing my chakra thread, and looked over at the doorway to face Shika's father, Nara Shikaku.

There wasn't really much that I could tell you about the man since I hardly saw him around. Shikamaru never talked about him and I never asked him. I think his father had some alcohol problems because I sometimes saw him stumbling out of Shushuya on my way home from training.

He was a tall and intimidating man with the same spiky black hair Shikamaru had inherited. But unlike Shika, Shikaku had two long scars the ran along the right side of his face. I always imagined Shikaku to be a powerful and strong ninja even though I had never seen him in action. He was after all, head of the Nara Clan and a jounin. And he was a Nara.

That alone meant many things.

"Yes," I nodded, sitting a bit straighter.

I had already talked to Shikamaru's father a couple of times but he never failed to make me feel like a 6 year old again.

"Ah well, unlucky for you I guess. You can always try again next year," he said shrugging slightly.

Wait. He thought I had failed? I frowned a bit at this. Did I give off the impression I was a weakling, or?

"I passed actually. We're starting our first mission tomorrow.." I said, trying to still sound respectful even though I had been a little offended.

"So Kakashi finally passed a team eh? Must really like you guys then," he said giving me a glance again. "Well, I'm off! See you kids later. Be good."

He vanished before I could tell him goodbye. Not that it bothered me that much.

"What did you guys have to do to pass?" asked Shikamaru, looking at me curiously.

I explained to him what I had to go through this morning. The test, my crazy teammates, Kakashi, everything.

Shikamaru never interrupted me while I narrated my story but somehow never lost interest either.

"Is this Kakashi really that strict?" he asked, frowning.

"Strict? No not really... More like... weird."

"Kind of feel bad for you then. You also have Naruto and Sasuke to deal with.." he said smiling a little before laying back down to stare at the clouds.

"Don't remind me," I said groaning, before turning to do the same.

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* * *

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I knew that D-ranked missions weren't supposed to be that exciting but I found them strangely amusing. The missions themselves weren't that strange.. I guess it was rather the way we handled them that was a bit off.

When we met sensei the next day for our first mission, I hadn't expected Naruto to be so pumped up. He usually was very energetic but today he seemed to be all over the place. I wondered if he was aware that we would be getting a babysitting mission at best.

"Team 7's first official mission will be to repaint Sato's fence," announced sensei, giving us that weird smile of his.

"What? How is painting even considered a mission?" yelled Naruto looking crushed.

"If you want harder missions you have to complete the easy ones first," I replied.

I didn't bother to elaborate or explain to him how the whole mission ranking worked because he would either ignore me or not understand. It was simpler for the both of us if I spoke to him in a direct manner.

Naruto groaned but stopped protesting and followed our sensei toward the old man's house which was situated on the outskirts of Konoha.

Sato, an elderly man, fairly tall considering his age, gave us each a once over before frowning slightly.

Sato gave us each a bucket of brown-ish red paint and paintbrushes. He explained to us briefly what had to be done, giving us a quick nod before heading back inside his house.

"This stuff stinks," frowned Naruto, holding his bucket of paint away from him as if it was the foulest smelling diaper in the world.

I sighed walking over to the fence and started painting.

Thirty-five minutes later, the job was finished. I still had no idea how Naruto had managed to stick his foot in the bucket of paint.

The mission finished, Kakashi-sensei went to report back to the Hokage. Even though the mission itself had been easy, I was still proud to have successfully accomplished my first mission. Though I couldn't say that I was pleased by the pace we had taken to finish the fairly simple task. If it hadn't been for Sasuke and Naruto's bickering we would have finished ages ago.

As a general rule, I disliked working in teams. Even in my old life I had disliked group work. I was always better by myself.

But if I wanted to accomplish the goals I had set out for myself, I knew that I couldn't allow myself to take any shortcuts. If teamwork was necessary in order to achieve my dreams then so be it.

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* * *

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Our second mission was supposedly one of great importance. As important as a D-rank mission got that is. Which wasn't really saying much, considering.

"What's the distance to the target?" Kakashi-sensei's voice cackled through the wireless radio.

"Five meters," I responding tensing up. "Ready anytime."

"I am as well," said Sasuke, not too far away from me.

It took a rather long pause before Naruto declared he was ready as well.

"Your reflexes are too slow Naruto..." sighed Kakashi before continuing. "OK... Now!"

All three of us pounced from our hiding spots and circled in on the target.

Which happened to be a cat.

Well not any old missing cat. It was the cat of the wife of the Fire daimyo. Which by definition made it an important cat.

"Got you!" cried Naruto who was wrestling the cat. "I got him! I got him!"

The cat managed to get a few swipes at Naruto who howled in pain.

"Can you verify a red ribbon on his left ear?" asked Kakashi-sensei.

"Affirmative," replied Sasuke, glancing over at Naruto who was struggling to hold down the cat.

"I don't understand why you're so important anyway," said Naruto who had managed to capture and immobilize the crazy feline. "Look at your belly! You really need a cat diet!"

The cat hissed and I shot Naruto a small glare.

"Stop poking her stomach, what if that thing's pregnant or something?"

"_Pregnant_? Pregnant! This looks more like excess body fat if you ask me! I mean look at this stuff! It's like pudding!" he said, poking some more.

"Whatever," I grumbled, following Sasuke out of the forest.

"Lost pet Tora captured, mission accomplished," sighed Kakashi-sensei from his end of the wireless radio.

"OUCH! Will you be still you pig devil!" shouted Naruto. "CAN'T WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS? I HATE CATS!"

"Keep yelling Naruto and we'll all lose an ear," I grumbled.

I considered myself very lucky that my hearing ability had not dwindled after this first mission.

.

* * *

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"HAHA! That's what you get, you fat cat!" cheered Naruto as the Fire Country Lord's wife, Madame Shijimi, hugged her rescued cat to death.

The cat's reason for escape was now plainly obvious.

"Ooh my cute little Tora-chan, you had me so worried!" she scolded, hugging her some more before placing her in her cage. "Thank you all so much for finding her! I don't know what I would have done without my precious Tora-chan!"

She left after thanking us, carrying her beloved cat away along with her.

I stood awkwardly in front of the Hokage and the other ninja- one of them I recognized to be Iruka-sensei- and waited for them to assign us a new mission.

"So for Kakashi's Team 7 we have several available tasks for you..." said the Hokage, reading off a list. "Hmm... Babysitting the chief counselor's son or helping his wife do shopping, helping with potato digging..."

I exchanged brief glances with Sasuke. In no way did these jobs sound interesting. I highly doubted that potato digging was going to help me defeat an S-ranked criminal unless of course Kakashi-sensei taught us how to somehow decapitate our enemies with potatoes as our only weapon.

I needed to become stronger not waste my time looking after kids or walking dogs. But the Hokage's words were final and it wasn't in my place to argue.

"No! No! No! No!" argued Naruto looking frustrated.

I turned to look at him. Although I did agree with him, that was hardly an acceptable way to talk in the presence of the Hokage. ..What was he thinking?

"I'm a ninja now and I want fa real ninja mission! Not this little kid stuff!" whined Naruto, huffing.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Which he was. Clearly.

"You idiot! You're just a rookie! Just like everyone else you're going to have to start off with simple missions and work your way up!" shouted Iruka-sensei, looking outraged.

"Are you for real?" yelled Naruto. "Babysitting is _not_ a mission! It's just some stupid-"

His rant was abruptly cut off as Kakashi-sensei gave him a simple punch to the head. Eek. I stepped away silently from Kakashi-sensei and the now wailing Naruto.

"Naruto!" scolded the Hokage. "It seems I'm going to have to explain this to you since you don't understand. Listen, everyday the village receives numerous requests from babysitting to assassination. Each request is written down on these lists after being carefully analyzed and divided into an A,B, C, D ranking based on difficulty."

He motioned to the pile of paper and scrolls scattered on the desk in front of him.

"We ninja are also ranked by ability- starting with me, the Hokage, followed by the jounin, chuunin and finally genin. The missions are then handed out by us to the appropriate ninjas based on their abilities and experience. If the mission is successful, we receive payment from our client that allows us to support our village and our work. Since you are just starting out, you're assigned D-rank missions that-"

The Hokage stopped in his lecture when he finally noticed that Naruto wasn't even listening to him. In fact, Naruto wasn't even facing the Hokage- just sitting down talking to me about what he ate last night.

Should I be ashamed to say that I had been listening to him ramble about ramen?

Eh.

Well I wouldn't have been the only one anyway, since it seemed like Sasuke and Kakashi had been listening in as well. Any sort of conversation was more interesting than having to listen to a speech we had already heard a million times at the Academy.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

"I- I apologize," said Kakashi-sensei, looking embarrassed.

Heh... He was going to get a lot of crap for Naruto's behavior later.

"Gosh, all you do is give lectures! But you know what? I'm not the brat who used to pull pranks all the time! I'm a real ninja now and I want a real mission!" argued Naruto before pouting.

"I'm definitely going to get told off after this..." sighed Kakashi-sensei, before scratching his neck.

"So be it," said the Hokage smiling a little. "Since you are so determined, I've decided to give you guys a C-rank mission."

What?

A C-rank mission?

Naruto cheered and Sasuke silently gloated while I smiled in wonder.

Naruto really was a hidden genius! Geez and to think that I would be getting a C-rank mission this early on! Even Tadashi had waited three months before he got his first C-rank mission! This was going to be so cool! C-rank missions usually meant that we got to leave the village.

I had only left the village once, and that was only a short trip to the Land of Earth to see my brother Tadashi compete in the chuunin exams. Traveling was exciting and I couldn't wait to get out of these village walls.

"You'll be bodyguards on a journey!" announced Hokage-sama.

"To who? Who? Who? A feudal lord? A princess?" barked Naruto excitedly.

Although the idea sounded nice in theory, there really was no way we would get a feudal lord to escort. That was automatically categorized as an A-rank mission. If we were lucky, we would get to escort a nice looking civilian guy.

"Calm down I'm about to bring him in now," chuckled the Hokage. "Send in the client!"

We all turned to look at the back of the room and waited for our client to make his appearance. The door opened and in walked in a man who seemed to be in his 60s. He had a small belly which was presumably from drinking judging from the sake bottle in his hand. He had glasses and small eyes that were partly covered by his large pointed hat. The man looked strangely familiar although I didn't recognize his chakra signature.

"What's this? A group of snot-nosed kids! Are they really ninja?" said the man looking at us in disaproval. "This has got to be some sort of joke right?"

Snot-nosed kids? What kind of insult was that? Tch. His appearance didn't really please me in the slightest either. How did he think we felt about this? Stuck playing bodyguard for an alcoholic grumpy geezer.

Yay.

"Especially the short one with the idiotic look at his face!" He bellowed, swinging his sake bottle around before taking a huge gulp.

I cringed in disgust. Ew. That stuff was dribbling down his beard and everything.

"HAHAHA! Who's the short one with the idiotic look on his face?" laughed Naruto looking around.

…

There was an extremely awkward silence as Naruto realized Tazuna was in fact talking about him, seeing as both Sasuke and I were taller than Naruto.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" screamed Naruto who was being held back by a bored looking Kakashi.

"You can't kill the client, it doesn't work that way," he said sighing, ignoring the thrashing Naruto he was holding.

"I am Tazuna, master bridge builder. I must return to my country in order to build a bridge that will change the world. I expect you to provide me protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge even if it will cost you your life," he said rather darkly.

I grimaced, racking my brain trying to make sense out of things.

_Tazuna_...

I had heard that name before. In the archives? No.. In a conversation? No, that wasn't it. On a poster? Master bridge builder... Bridge _builder_... _Bridge_ builder? _Master_ bridge builder?

"Um, excuse me," I interrupted looking back and forth between the Hokage and Tazuna. "Where exactly will we be escorting him?"

"To the Land of Waves," answered Tazuna before drinking some more.

And everything suddenly fell into place.

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A/N: Thank you all for your views/ reviews! (:

I'm so, so, so sorry for not updating earlier but my computer shut down for two weeks and I had thought I lost all my saved work. Thank God fo my friend Marc who managed to retrieve all my files! Thank you guys for being so patient!

A lot of you mentioned spelling and grammar mistakes in the last chapter and I will admit I have a bad habit of not proofreading my work! I'm much too lazy to. Sometimes I do, but only like on a couple paragraphs.. So what I suggest is, if the mistakes bother you all too much, have one of you guys proofread for me. Aha!

Though I don't see why you guys would want to, since proofreading is gross.

As you all know this story is in Ren's POV so you only get to see what she's thinking. I also write the same scenes in different character POV just so I can be sure to correctly portray them. I've decided to insert a tiny snippet below- something that would have happened around two chapters ago. It's supposed to explain a bit why Kakashi's so distant with his team. At least in the beginning.

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As a general rule, Hatake Kakashi hated Academy brats.

Every year he was forced to pass or fail a genin team and every year he failed them. Every year a new batch of naive pipsqueaks waltzed in never failing to lower Kakashi's expectations for the future ninja generation.

When he had learned that The Third was letting him- no, _ordering_ him- to test the last Uchiha and the Uzumaki, he had wondered if the Hokage intended to make his life a living hell. There was no way he was going to pass this team. After all, those two would just become a twisted reminder of his past. There was also a girl, but she didn't really matter. She would fail with the rest of them anyway.

He read with displeasure the files the Hokage had handed him.

The first file, the Uchiha's, was expected. Last of his clan, number one rookie of Konoha, top marks,... He hadn't- much to Kakashi's relief- awakened his Sharingan yet.

The girl, Tanaka Ren, was a generalist. Average in about everything except her written portion. Nothing interesting enough to catch his attention. The only thing he disliked about that one was that her name sounded too much like _hers_.

Uzumaki Naruto's file was slightly thicker than the others, mostly because of the information regarding the Kyuubi and the list of rules the kid had breached during his short life span. His less than mediocre grades and abilities in no way reminded Kakashi of _him_. Just the looks. How unfortunate.

The Hokage had summoned him to the brat's living quarters in order to talk to him about his new... _interesting_ team. Not that it mattered anyway, since he would be failing all of them.

"So this is where Naruto lives?" He asked giving the place a quick glance around.

Located in one of the cheapest ninja apartment complexes, in one of the areas in Konoha it was best to stay away from, the apartment was small but comfortable enough. The place however was a complete mess.

He hadn't been in the place in years, not after Naruto had finally settled down in the apartment.

"Yes, he'll be on your team as well as Tanaka Ren and Sasuke from the Uchiha clan. Good luck, you'll need it."

_Uchiha_ clan. The sole survivor. The one last reminder.

It's not like he couldn't handle a bunch of fresh-faced brats. It's just that he preferred not to.

The one who would give him the hardest time would probably be the Uzumaki. Loud, stupid, and flamboyant- everything that went against the way of a ninja. Ninja in the making like him were hard to come across... They were either loud or stupid or loud and stupid but never a combination of all three.

Kakashi looked at the milk carton that was on the table.

Just as he thought.

".. This milk is way past it's expiration date..." He sighed, putting it back down.

"Ah," said the Third, nodding grimly.

He was already expecting the worst.

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I have more but I don't really know if you guys like reading things from other people's POV. Tell me what you think!

Thanks again for reading! (:


	14. Chapter 13: Journey to the Land of Waves

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do ?_

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-Chapter 13: Journey to the Land of Waves -

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"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

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After being dismissed by the Hokage to gather our belongings for the mission, I quickly made my disappearance.

Not only was I disturbed by the fact that I couldn't remember this stupid mission in advance, I was annoyed we had to leave in two hours.

That didn't give me enough time to plan any battle strategies out concerning Zabuza. Urgh.

I rushed home and went to my room. After finding a specific notebook, I flipped it open to a random page that appeared blank. After inserting a bit of my chakra into it, I started flipping the now visible pages. Sadly I couldn't take credit for this trick since I had stolen the idea from Kabuto's nin info cards.

Years ago, I had written the important turning points in the Naruto plot line and all the details that I had remembered. I didn't ever think to re-read the notebook thinking that I would remember all the information. But apparently my memories of my past life weren't as intact as I had thought. Seriously though. How could I forget old man Tazuna and his horrible attitude?

I read over the information I had written about the Land of Waves Arc.

_Zabuza- missing-nin from Kirigakure, part of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, works for Gatou in order to fund a second coup d'etat against the Mizukage, partner: Haku, water nature type, is killed in the original Naruto plot_

_Haku- kekkai genkai: ice release, orphan, uses senbon, partner: Zabuza, fast, observant_

_After encountering the Demon Brothers (chuunin level missing-nins, use of metal shuriken chains and poisoned metal claws), Team 7 will run into Zabuza and Haku (see notes for further description). Kakashi will defeat Zabuza thanks to his Sharingan but Haku, disguised as a hunter-nin, will take him away. After a week, Team 7 will battle once again against Zabuza and Haku. Naruto will release his demon chakra for the first time. Sasuke awakens his Sharingan. Haku sacrifices himself for Zabuza. Gatou shows up ready to eliminate Zabuza, but is killed by him instead. Zabuza dies while killing Gatou. Bridge construction is completed; Bridge will be named after Naruto._

Now what was I supposed to do with this information?

I didn't want to kill Haku, since he had spared Naruto and Sasuke's lives in the original canon. It seemed rather unfair to kill someone who was trying to save you.

But if I somehow managed to let Haku and Zabuza roam free, that would probably cause a lot of problems afterwards.. Zabuza was far too greedy for power. He would probably just try to find another way to start another coup d'etat against the Mizukage.

But if I killed Zabuza and not Haku, Haku would either try to kill us all for revenge or kill himself. Ugh. There was just no way I could know for sure what choice would be the best regarding this stupid wave mission.

While I meditated over the possible repercussions of this troublesome mission, I began packing my things.

I had no idea when I would be getting back. A week? A few weeks? A month? Would I even come back?

A few clothes, a sleeping bag, matches, food, money, ninja weapons, storage scrolls, medical kit... I checked over twice to make sure I had everything I considered indispensable for this mission. I also made sure to bring a spare notebook to document my 'trip'.

After all, there were many trees, animals and plants that I had never seen before in my life. Not only that, but there were different customs and accents that I would be able to observe and jot down; details that you could not learn about in books. Maybe I could even bring some plant samples back home and press them like I had done with the plants I found in Konoha.

"What? They're already giving you guys a C-rank mission?" my mom exclaimed, looking alarmed as soon as I announced the news.

She had every right to be. Even the occasional graduating genius still had to wait until at least a month or two for his or her first C-rank mission. I myself had expected the mission to present itself a bit later than it had.

"Yeah, one of my teammates convinced Hokage-sama to give us a C-rank mission.."

Even though my mom wasn't a ninja she knew what C-ranked missions entailed. She had no real reason to be worried. The worst possible scenario would be to run into some bandits. And even if we were attacked by bandits, they would most likely be civilians. Second worst case scenario would probably be to be attacked by a dray of rabid squirrels. Nothing we genin couldn't handle. Especially with Sharingan Kakashi on our side.

I was upset that my dad and brother were all gone for the day so I couldn't bid them goodbye. I wondered if I would ever see them again.. I hated the fact that I couldn't see my brother and father before I left. They were two of the handful of people that I cared about the most in this world.

Agh. Why was I so pessimistic? Haruno had made it out alive and she hadn't trained half as hard as I had during all these years.

"I see. Did you pack everything you needed?"

I nodded, patting my bag affirmatively.

"Well, stay safe. Maybe it'll do you some good to get out of the village," she finally said, concern still etched onto her soft features.

"I'll be fine. I'll be back in about a month, I think."

"I suppose you will. You do have a pretty decent team.." she said trailing off.

"I'll be back as soon as possible," I said, though I think I was trying to convince myself more than my mom.

I still had about a twenty minutes left and decided to go to the training grounds to inform Shikamaru and Chouji about my mission. After all, I might never get to see those two again.

When I got to the training field, I widened my eyes.

None of them were actually training.

They were all sitting down, _talking_...

My right eye twitched.

There was a _war_ coming and they were just- I shook my head. It wasn't their fault that they were still blissfully innocent of the ever approaching future. Maybe it was better that way.

"Oi!" I yelled gaining their attention.

"Oh hey Ren-chan!" said Chouji, eating a chip whose flavor will remain unknown.

"Are you going anywhere?" said Shikamaru, eying my travel bag.

"Yeah, actually that's why I came. We just got a C-rank mission. I'm leaving soon to go to the Land of Waves to be a bodyguard," I said, walking over to them while frowning at the thought of being around my team _and_ Tazuna for an entire month. Possibly longer.

"Wow! You got a C-rank mission already! I wish we could get one! I'm so sick of doing babysitting!" said Ino, impressed.

Even Asuma-sensei looked pretty shocked.

"C-rank?" frowned Shikamaru, probably wondering how my team had managed to snag a C-rank mission so quickly. "That's.."

He trailed off but I had a pretty good idea on what he thought.

"What have you guys been up to anyway?" I asked looking at them.

"Oh we're just taking a break. We just finished walking an old man's dogs," explained Chouji, smiling a little at me before going back to eating his snack.

"How long will you be gone?" asked Shikamaru, frowning.

"I'll be gone for about a month," I said, meeting his gaze.

There were just so many things I wanted to tell them. I just didn't really know how.

For a moment I wished that Ino wasn't present so I could tell them how much they meant to me. With Ino here, everything seemed so _awkward_.

"A whole month with Sasuke-kun? You're so lucky!" exclaimed Ino, looking at me with this weird look in her eyes.

I turned to glare at her for ruining the moment with her Sasuke obsessed thoughts when I suddenly realized what time it was.

"Oh shit! I'm almost late! Got to run! See you guys, _stay safe_," I said waving before running off to the designated meeting place.

I arrived at the Main Gate right on time. Sasuke, Naruto, and Tazuna were already there looking at me only briefly before going back to what they had been doing before I had arrived.

Naruto was already acting like the hyperactive child he was, jumping all over the place.

"Am I really supposed to trust my life with this brat?" grumbled Tazuna, eying Naruto warily.

"I don't think you should worry. After all this is a simple C-ranked mission. It's not like we're going to encounter any enemy ninja... What would they want with just a simple bridge builder?" I said rather smugly, joining their little group.

I didn't even have to look at him to see his panicked expression, I felt it in his chakra. Hopefully his reactions would warn the others that there was something seriously off about him and this entire mission.

"Yeah! Don't insult ninja! I'm one of the best ninja! I'm going to become Hokage one day and you'll look up to me! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! Remember it!" yelled Naruto, jumping up for emphasis.

"Hokage's supposed to be the village's number one ninja, right? I doubt you'll ever be Hokage, brat. And even if you were, I still wouldn't look up to you," commented Tazuna staring at Naruto condescendingly, arms crossed.

"Not that it really matters what you think since you aren't part of the Hidden Leaf Village," I said matter-of-factly, before Naruto could respond.

Naruto looked at me, a little surprised that I would be defending him.

"I hate smart-ass brats like you," growled Tazuna-san from behind me, before taking a gulp of sake. "Think you're better than everybody else don't you? You're worse than the orange idiot!"

"Not really a big fan of yours either old man," I shot back, smirking at his horrible attempt at insulting me.

Because in all honesty, I already knew that Naruto was ten thousand times better than me. Maybe not at the level he was now, but he would be. He would become a better ninja, a better person, than I ever could hope to become.

"Now, now," interrupted Kakashi-sensei appearing out of nowhere, giving me his closed-eye smile. "Let's play nice."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, giving him a dubious look but nodded anyways. Why did he always treat us like one of his ninken?

"Let's get going then," said Kakashi-sensei, letting Sasuke lead the way.

"Alright then!" shouted Naruto, grinning. "This is my first time out of the village!"

He jumped ahead proudly, wanting to be the one to lead the way.

I followed after him, pausing slightly when I felt fleeting glimpses of chakra jumping through the trees and suddenly disappearing only to reappear up ahead. Odd.

Flickering chakra always made me feel sick after a while. They reminded me too much of Shisui.

Sometimes I felt glimpses of chakra disappearing too quickly to recognize the chakra print while I was in the village but I always dismissed it as ANBU members. Did the Hokage order ANBU to look over us because we had Naruto on our team? I thought Kakashi-sensei would have been able to handle Naruto by himself.

I shrugged slightly and followed Sasuke, silently.

"You're going the wrong way," I pointed out once we had reached a forked path. "The Land of Waves would be to the right."

Although I had never been there, I knew the general direction of the Land of Waves.

"I knew that!" laughed Naruto before turning right.

There wasn't exactly a whole bunch of information of the Land of Waves in the library since it was such a small country, but I knew enough.

The Land of Waves was made up of a small cluster of islands, not too far off from the Fire Country. Although isolated, they relied heavily on shipping and trade. It would have taken three days to arrive at our destination - about the same time to go to Suna- but with Tazuna here we would probably take twice as long since we would be traveling at a much slower pace. He was a civilian and an old one at that.

The weather was enjoyable, I noted, as we walked in silence. The past few days had been a bit on the warm side, but today the heat was neutralized with a cool wind. I expected to walk in silence- since none of us really got along well- but Naruto had no problem talking about everything and anything, even if we gave no signs of listening to his monologues.

After a rare moment of silence I decided to ask Kakashi-sensei some questions. We rarely saw our sensei outside of missions since he never bothered to train us. I was rather curious in learning about his exploits, since most of that stuff was classified and couldn't be found in the archives back at Konoha.

"Say Kakashi-sensei," I started. "At what age did you join ANBU?"

"Huh?" asked Kakashi looking over at me surprised. "Why would you want to know something like that?"

"Curiosity, I suppose."

The other three looked interested as well.

"Kakashi-sensei was part of ANBU? Since when?" exclaimed Naruto, looking at our sensei with new found admiration.

Even Sasuke graced Kakashi-sensei with a look of approval.

"ANBU? Is that some sort of club?" grunted Tazuna, appearing unimpressed.

We all looked at him incredulously. Well I did anyway.

"Well I imagine you could call it a club of some sort," mused Kakashi-sensei, smiling. "But to answer your question, I joined ANBU when I was seventeen."

Seventeen? I had expected him to join ANBU rank sooner than that. Huh.

We only stopped several times on our way, but it was mostly for Tazuna's sake than ours. It was dusk when we finally stopped to set up our campsite.

Believe it or not, there were a multitude of useful 'camp' jutsus. Kakashi demonstrated a couple, like the earth release technique that turned over the ground in order to make it softer to sleep on. The same technique would have to be used again in the morning to leave no traces and scents of our stay behind. He also had us put a couple basic traps in place around the campsite as well as a bell and wire system security system we had learned back at the Academy.

It was dark when we gathered around the fire, eating some of the dehydrated food you could buy at the supermarket made for ninja or people going out camping. They were convenient, easy to prepare and had a long shelf life. Although not very tasty they were light weight and easy to carry around and at the same time provided as many calories as a regular dinner would have.

We set up our sleeping bags silently, while Naruto took over on watch duty.

He woke me up three hours later and I took his place. Kakashi-sensei was for some reason still awake, but we kept to ourselves.

Watch duty was incredibly boring after a while so I decided to practice my chakra string control. I was no where near good enough at it to call myself a puppet master, but could do a decent job while manipulating weapons.

"Chakra string, eh?" observed Kakashi-sensei, appearing next to me. "You've had good training."

Good thing I had too.

"Asuma-sensei taught me a lot," I said looking a little reproachfully at him.

Asuma-sensei hadn't been the one to teach me the chakra string technique but that detail wasn't very important. He had trained me and taught me a bunch of other things while Kakashi-sensei on the other hand hadn't bothered to teach us anything at all. All the other rookie teams were out training, from what Asuma-sensei had told me.

"Like that wind chakra right? I was surprised that you're wind natured."

"I suppose it is a little weird considering my family on my father's side has been known to only use earth and/or water elements," I mused. "But I don't think I could have asked for any better since I like using weapons."

I was good at it too. Maybe as good as Tenten, but I couldn't be exactly sure seeing as we rarely saw her fight in the Naruto series. No, she was probably better than me since was able to call forth _hundreds _of weapons. And anyways, she specialized in weaponry while I didn't.

"Well to be honest, you're very advanced compared to the rest of the graduating rookie."

"Surprised? I was top graduating kunoichi," I grinned.

"Hmm.. yes I suppose," smiled Kakashi-sensei.

Reading into his chakra I could tell he was doubtful and.. suspicious? Of me? Eh? I shrugged and continued manipulating my chakra threads to weave together.

"You seem tense.." he noted after a rather long silence.

"You feel it too, don't you?" I asked accusingly.

"What now..?"

"We're being followed. They're gone now but they always come back," I whispered, glancing at the three others that were supposedly 'sleeping'.

At first I wasn't even sure they were the same people, but after I had memorized the chakra signatures there was no denying it. And anyways, it was hard not to remember their chakra- they resembled smelly seaweed kept in storage in some of the apothecaries back at Konoha. Kinda gross when you think about it.

"Oh?" Kakashi-sensei stared at me.

I shot him an incredulous look but stayed quiet. It was obvious he already knew. Kakashi-sensei could easily knock those two out so I needn't worry.

"I'm going to go wake up Sasuke-kun. It's his turn to take over watch duty. Goodnight."

I headed over to wake Sasuke up and then settled into my sleeping bag. Although cooler in temperature, the nights in Konoha were still warm. I tried not to worry too much about the Demon Brothers and eventual Zabuza confrontation and dozed off into a light sleep.

The next day, we all got up around sunrise (hard to ignore the sunlight once it was there) and ate breakfast. I quickly finished my granola with milk and blueberries food pouch before helping the others to clear our camp grounds.

The following days were peaceful. I started opening up and talking a bit more as I grew more comfortable. Even Sasuke joined in during some conversations.

Even though I had much faith in Kakashi, I still couldn't help but tense everytime we crossed a river. I always expected the two that were following us to jump out and attack, but they never did.

I was glad they hadn't attacked immediately, it gave me a lot of time to think through this mission. Time I hadn't had before leaving Konoha. Although I was pretty good at observing, analyzing and thinking of strategies I doubted what I would be like during a real fight. Fights went by really fast and you hardly had time to _think_. Shikamaru had excellent analytical skills as well, but what distinguished him from me was that he had the knack of choosing the best choice. I wished that I had had time to ask him to think of a plan with me before I left. I would have presented it to him like the battle strategics game we used to play when we were younger.

But since he wasn't here at the moment, I had to ask myself, 'What would Shika do?' (or WWSD as I liked to call it).

After a long, longgg internal debate, I had finally made up my mind.

I felt them before I even spotted the puddle.

My immediate thought was that our opponents were stupid. The puddle was so obviously out of place, that I felt like slapping a hand to my forehead in exasperation. They weren't the brightest in the bunch, that was for sure.

I could tell Sasuke and Kakashi noticed as well- their chakra signals indicated they were on high alert.

The closer we approached, I couldn't help but scrunch my nose. Although chakra didn't exactly smell, the image their chakra gave off was so vivid I swore I could practically smell it.

I probably should have been more scared - this was after all my first real battle and there was a risk that I could possibly die. I felt anxious but more of the 'i-can't-wait-for-this-to-happen' kind of nervous.

Maybe it was because I knew I didn't have much to fear as long as Kakashi-sensei was there, maybe it was because the idea of fighting and being defeated by fictional characters was such an absurd and crazy concept. I mean, it was kind of being placed in a video game. You only had one life, but even if you died it wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe I would even end up in the Harry Potter world next.. Hm.

We had all passed the puddle to the point where I wondered if they even planned on attacking us at all.

Suddenly, I felt two spikes of chakra and turned around just in time to see the second ninja jump out of the puddle in a swirl of mist. The ninja looked more like bears to be honest. Big, scruffy looking bears. Gah! Why was I comparing them to animals when they were set on killing us all!

One jumped on the others shoulder, propelling himself into the air. He wrapped the metal chain around Kakashi-sensei and I cringed when I saw them tear him apart.

Even though Kakashi-sensei had probably used a genjutsu to make it look like our opponents had captured him, it was horrifying seeing someone ripped to shreds right in front of you.

"One down!" they said in unison.

"Wha-? KAKASHI-SENSEI!" yelled Naruto, panicking.

It was hard to concentrate when everybody's chakra around me was going haywire, but I had a mission. Shinobi Rule number four- a ninja must always put their mission first. I jumped in front of Tazuna and pulled out a set of shurikens from my hip pouch.

I was starting to get nervous and not really the 'i-can't-wait-for-this-to-happen' nervous I had felt before. Maybe seeing 'Kakashi-sensei' dismembered in front of me sort of gave me the reality check I needed.

"Naruto!" I called out urgently. "Get the hell out of the way!"

The enemy nin were aiming for Naruto next- you could tell from their stance. Unless it was a feint, but they both seemed too stupid to even consider that.

Naruto however, wasn't budging. He seemed to be paralyzed. I widened my eyes. I couldn't leave Tazuna to protect Naruto, because then one might try to attack him. But I couldn't just leave Naruto to be fed to the wolves either!

I quickly launched the shuriken in hopes of deflecting the chain and formed the clone seal. From where I was standing there really was no way my shuriken would block out the attack without them being able to redirect the chain.

At the same time, Sasuke had jumped into the air and hurled his own shuriken at the chain, embedding it into the nearest tree. He threw a kunai into its open circle in its center to make sure it would hold. He landed on them, kicking their faces simultaneously.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

My clone dived in, pushing Naruto out of the way. I would've gladly jumped in myself it it weren't for those metal gauntlets that were poisoned. I knew lots of cures for poisons but I had no idea which type of poison they used, so there was no way in knowing if I could cure myself if I got wounded.

I watched with narrowed eyes as the two brothers used a release mechanism to free themselves. My next move depended on what they chose to do next.

One of them started clawing their way towards Sasuke while the other ran towards me. I shifted my weight onto my right leg choosing a kata that would favor my speed and agility.

I blinked.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" shouted a disbelieving Naruto looking at the cut up remnants of the log sensei had used during the replacement jutsu.

"He was- he was fine the whole time?" gasped Tazuna.

Sure enough, Kakashi-sensei had successfully stopped and knocked out the Demon Brothers. Although thankful that he had, I was fairly sure that he didn't need to pose for that long.. Sensei definitely liked to show off, albeit subtly.

"Hmph," scoffed Sasuke.

"Hm... I didn't expect you to freeze up like that Naruto," commented Kakashi-sensei before turning towards the rest of us. "Good job Sasuke and Ren. By the way, Tazuna-san... I need to talk to you."

I silently dispelled my clone. Kakashi-sensei carried the two enemy away, followed by Tazuna. I looked over Naruto making sure he was OK.

"Hey," said Sasuke turning to face Naruto, smirking. "Are you hur- _What_?"

I hit him on the head and sent him a glare, shutting him up. We were all teammates now, so there was no need to antagonize each other. I would have thought he might hit me back or something but all he did was shoot me an annoyed look and refrained from commenting.

"We're just glad you're OK Naruto," I smiled. "Kakashi-sensei's waiting for us, let's go."

I pushed Sasuke forward and we all began walking to the tree Kakashi-sensei had tied the brothers to. Once we had all gathered round, Kakashi started speaking.

"These guys are chuunin level missing nin from the mist. Mist ninja are.. very relentless," explained Kakashi-sensei.

Yeah, more like bloodthirsty greedy monsters.

"I could've killed them quickly, but by falling into their trap I learned who they were targeting."

"What do you mean?" said Tazuna, blanching.

"He means," I said, crossing my arms. "Were these ninja after one of us Konoha nin, or were they after you?"

Tazuna widened his eyes.

"Our mission was to escort you to your village and protect you from the occasional bandits," sighed Kakashi-sensei. "This has now become a B-rank mission. We are operating outside of our duties. It would be perhaps better if we return to Konoha. "

"No way sensei!" huffed Naruto, looking over at Sasuke. "We won't get another mission like this again! I _have_ to prove myself!"

Sasuke grunted his approval. I could only shrug.

I could always try to persuade my teammates to go back to Konoha to avoid all this Zabuza trouble, but it would be much too troublesome. Naruto's resoluteness was almost unyielding, and if Naruto was going all out to prove something, Sasuke would follow.

They were like that. It almost made me jealous how close they were -and didn't even know it- but I shrugged the feeling off. I was their teammate now, so we were all bound to grow closer anyway.

"Our team wants to continue this mission," I stated, speaking for us all.

Well, there really wasn't going back now. Everything had turned out how I had planned it, more or less, and I had no choice but to continue on.

"Besides my brother will never let me forget it if I don't complete my first A-rank mission," I added as an afterthought.

"B-rank," corrected Sasuke from behind me.

"Right," I nodded.

The mission would only classify as an A-rank mission once we had encountered Zabuza.

Kakashi contemplated our request, before sighing.

"We'll accompany you to your village. Then you'll be on your own," decided Kakashi-sensei.

Tazuna, who looked a lot less tense, nodded slowly. Naruto looked like he had just won the lottery.

"Alright! We're gonna fight ninja!" shouted Naruto enthusiastically.

"You didn't even do anything last time. Are you going to let your comrades save you again?" sneered Tazuna.

"No way! That was just a fluke! Next time I'll fight for real! I won't let anyone save me next time!" yelled Naruto, getting riled up.

I glanced over, noticing that one of the mist ninja was starting to regain consciousness.

"What are we going to do with those two?" I asked.

"We'll leave them tied up here so that they can be taken into custody," said Kakashi-sensei, turning to look at the two.

"But.. Are you sure? ...They're ninja," I said uncertain.

After all, they could just use the Rope Escape Technique. Then I noticed the rope Kakashi had used. It was a special rope that ninja used to immobilize their captives that could not be cut through with a kunai and at the same time, prevented them from using chakra.

"Don't worry," smiled Kakashi-sensei reassuringly. "I've taken care of everything."

I smiled slightly back.

"Off to the Wave Country it is!"

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* * *

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Sasuke

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Were those idiots always late? Everytime they had to meet up, Sasuke was always first to show up and forced to wait for his teammates.

He supposed his team- although cursed with odd colored hair and a hindrance he would have to bear- could have been worse.

Naruto was a first class idiot but he wasn't a coward. And perhaps his shadow clones could be useful as a diversion if push came to shove.

Ren wasn't a fangirl. That fact alone meant a multitude of things. He didn't know her that well, but she was better than Naruto- although that wasn't saying much. Still. To be top kunoichi of their year must mean that she was somewhat decent. She was smart, he would grant her that. But in the ninja world, book smarts would only get her so far.

He was aware that he was leaps ahead of his two other teammates, but unless they were unfortunate enough to cause him problems, Sasuke decided he would put up with them. For now.

His team wouldn't get in his way. He wouldn't let them either way. In truth, teams were unnecessary and would only slow him down. The only reason he hadn't protested was because of their jounin teacher, Hatake Kakashi.

He hadn't heard of him before, but from what he could tell from the bell test, their sensei was powerful. And if his sensei could teach him to be that powerful, he would be part of a team.

Although he couldn't say he knew his new team very well, Sasuke wasn't stupid. All of them were suspicious.

Naruto, for instance, had been incapable of producing a decent clone throughout all his years at the Academy, and here he was performing a B-rank technique. He would have deemed that an impossible task for the dead last but the grinning idiot had managed to prove him wrong.

And Sasuke didn't like to be proved wrong. Especially by Naruto.

The girl was also very suspicious.

Throughout the entire bell test she had been extremely too calm. When sensei had announced that they would be dropped from the ninja program she hadn't even flinched. It was perturbing. He would have to keep a close eye on her.

"Where is the rest of your group, kid?" grumbled the client that his team was supposed to escort to the Land of Waves.

Before he could answer him with a one word response, Naruto appeared.

"Bah!" the client grunted, downing his sake.

Sasuke cringed. He would put up with the degrading client only for the sake of his mission.

They were after all the first rookie team to be assigned a C-rank mission, which meant they were the most skilled. Not that he would have had it any other way.

Ren appeared a short while later. Why did girls always take so long to get ready? Back at The Academy, they had taught everyone how to pack for a mission in less than 5 minutes. He supposed girls weren't good at such things. Hn.

Though he supposed his jounin sensei wasn't any better. "Lost on the road of life", pff what a pathetic excuse.

"Am I really supposed to trust my life with this brat?" said Tazuna motioning over at Naruto.

No.

Wasn't that bit obvious?

"I don't think you should worry," said Ren, walking over to him. "After all this is a simple C-ranked mission. It's not like we're going to encounter any enemy ninja... What would they want with just a simple bridge builder?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Her words were harmless but the intention had been to provoke him. Why?

He noted that the client gulped and started to fidget. Was it out of fear?

Great, another person he would have to keep an eye on.

"Yeah! Don't insult ninja! I'm one of the best ninja! I'm going to become Hokage one day and-"

Yeah right.

Hokage were stong and Naruto could never comprehend the meaning of strength.

Sasuke watched with disinterest as his teammates started to bicker with the client. What idiots.

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* * *

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A/N: Thank you guys for being so patient for me. (:

I forgot who said that they would be willing to proofread for me... message me so we can work that out for future chapters.

And this time I wrote a Sasuke Snippet! He was very interesting to write.. I suppose. Wonder if I got him right. I know he doesn't say half that much, but I've always thought people who talk less think more.

Anyways, tell me what you think! Lots of love to everyone who has taken time to give me feedback on the story! Your insight has helped me a lot! (:

Also I have no idea how the image manager thing works. For some reason it put my avatar picture? Whatever. I don't think it really matters. Right?

Thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 14: Demon of the Mist

_If you got a second chance at life, what would you do?_

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* * *

-Chapitre 14: Demon of the Mist-

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* * *

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"There is no difference between you and me, you see. We're both human beings, fighting for a reason."

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We arrived at the shore sooner than expected, despite the Demon Brothers setback. On our way Tazuna had explained his situation in the Land of Waves:

The person behind all of his troubles was Gatou (Multi-millionaire, underground dealer, etc.) Gatou had managed to monopolize the Wave Country's shipping industry- the country's source of wealth. Now the country was in a desolate state and the only thing that could fix it was the bridge. Tazuna's bridge. That's why it was of utmost importance to finish the bridge's construction.

Naruto seemed deeply moved by this story and seemed a whole lot more sympathetic towards Tazuna afterwards, while Sasuke seemed to want this mission to be done with and Kakashi-sensei... I had no idea what Kakashi-sensei thought.

I had expected to see some sort of port when we reached the shore -the Wave Country was known for it's large docks- but instead we were greeted quietly by Tazuna's friend, Kaji.

He helped us in his small motorboat; Naruto was in the front with Sasuke, I was in the middle with Tazuna, and Kakashi was in the back with Kaji.

"We don't want them to hear us arriving or else we'll be in big trouble," he explained, before starting to row.

Well that explained why we were traveling in the middle of the night.

We advanced silently into the heavy mist (the mist would provide good coverage that was for sure- I could hardly see past a foot in front of me!) It was so thick, it was almost palpable.

I wondered how Kaji managed to navigate through this mist, but I didn't dare question him. Everyone was tense and silent and I half expected Zabuza to jump out of the water and slaughter us all.

The mist started to dissipate once we passed through -what I thought- was a tunnel. Small lights lit up the passageway, allowing me to see somewhat clearly.

"We've been extremely lucky that no one has noticed us so far," said Kaji from behind me.

And even though his words had been whispered, they seemed extremely loud for some reason, making me cringe.

Once out of the passageway, we all looked around at the sight of a small village. The moon was the only source of light but it enabled us to see better.

Kaji rowed the boat between two mangroves and stopped in front of a house, letting us climb out of the boat.

Strangely, I could feel no more than two or three foreign chakra signals in the perimeter around us (even though we were supposed to be in a village...)

"This is as far as I go," Kaji said before starting up the engine. "Good luck Tazuna."

"Thanks again for all your help Kaji," nodded Tazuna, watching his friend leave.

"We still have some way to go," said Tazuna. "I expect you all to bring me back home safely!"

I pursed my lips at this. How much further was his house? We were all tired and it was probably not going to go down well if Zabuza chose to attack us now.

Would he attack? Was he even part of the storyline? What was the plan of action? A multitude of questions kept me high on alert, even though I was extremely tired.

We traveled silently for about thirty minutes until we reached a small house in a neighboring village. The house was situated next to the shoreline but not too far from the forest we had traveled through either.

Tazuna knocked three times quietly before entering, motioning for us to follow him inside. Everything was dead quiet, and I shifted my weight from foot to foot unsure.

Weren't we supposed to be attacked? When was Zabuza coming? Why would he choose the house for the place of ambush?

"Everyone is asleep now, but there's no need to wake them up now," said Tazuna quietly. "Follow me."

He walked past the kitchen and we followed him, until we reached the only guest room at the end of the hallway.

"You guys will sleep here for tonight. It'll be a bit cramped, but it will have to do. At least for tonight."

He left us alone after closing the door behind him.

He was right, it was bit cramped, but at The Academy we had slept in worse conditions. And anyways... I prefered sleeping here than on the damp forest floor we had been sleeping on for these past few days.

Naruto, Sasuke, and I took out our sleeping bags and installed ourselves, leaving Kakashi-sensei the futon.

I got into my sleeping bag that was placed between Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei.

Thoughts of Zabuza and long swords made my mind buzz until I could take no more.

I fell asleep moments later.

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* * *

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"Rise and shine my cute little students!"

I blinked lazily, my eyes adjusting to the light, before rubbing my eyes and sitting up slowly.

Too_ early._

"Kakashi-sensei?" yawned Naruto somwhere next to me.

I looked around me to see Kakashi-sensei, smiling at us from the doorway, and Sasuke sitting up, glaring at us all.

"What's going on?" asked Naruto, stretching.

He just smiled and turned on his heels.

I got up and slid my shoes on, following Kakashi-sensei out to the kitchen. Tazuna was already sitting down at the table eating his breakfast.

Mhm, it smelled good in here.

Eggs and bacon.

"Good morning!" greeted a woman in her early thirties.

She was slender and had long black hair with matching black eyes. She was fairly pretty, a fact, I think, that didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi-sensei.

"I'm Tsunami," she smiled. "Come sit down and eat."

There was no need to tell me a second time. We all sat down and started chowing down on Tsunami's delicious cooking.

Bahaha! I was finally glad to eat something other than dehydrated food that I didn't care if I looked like a pig at the moment.

"Father's told me about what you did for him. Thank you all very much for your efforts. It's not every day you meet courageous people," she said, serving us a second helping.

"That's because we're ninja!" beamed Naruto between two mouthfuls.

That was true, I supposed. Ninja as a general rule were brave, but there had been many cases in which ninja had wimped out and done some not-so-noble acts in order to save their own skin.

"Are you done yet? The bridge isn't going to build itself," grumbled Tazuna, who was waiting for us at the doorway.

We shuffled out, still on a breakfast high.

Tazuna told us the way to the bridge wasn't that far away if we took the shortcut through the forest. We followed him, taking the route we had used last night.

I felt uneasy. Probably because of the eggs.

Naruto was fidgety as well. He kept moving everywhere, disrupting our standard formation numerous times.

"Ah! There, I sense something!" he announced, aiming a kunai straight into a bush.

Tazuna jumped in surprise (or was it fright?).

"False alarm! Hehe, just a mouse!" chuckled Naruto, scratching his neck.

"You _dwarf_! Don't sacre us like that!" barked Tazuna, hitting Naruto in the head.

"Naruto," said Kakashi-sensei, sounding exasperated. "Don't throw kunais at random. They are pointy sharp objects that may be dangerous if handled-"

"Yeah, yeah," responded Naruto, continuing forward.

I really felt sick.

"Sensei," I started. "I don't-"

"There!" yelled Naruto, aiming another kunai into a nearby bush.

"What?! _What_ did I say about scaring us?!" scolded Tazuna. "You _idiot_!"

"But- But I really did feel something this time!" protested Naruto, hands up in defence.

Kakashi-sensei frowned and went to inspect the bush, while I exchanged glances with Sasuke. He had felt it as well.

I gulped. This wasn't good. At all.

"Next time you give me a scare, I'll wring your neck!" said Tazuna, waving his sake bottle threatningly.

I snapped my head up, sure of it. There had been wisps of chakra before, but now that it had solidified... Black snow. Black snow? Snow?

The chakra moved again and I widened my eyes a little.

"Everybody down!" yelled Kakashi-sensei at us, crouching down.

I grabbed Tazuna by his arm and yanked him to the floor with me. Sasuke and Naruto had ducked as well.

A huge, metal sword came hurling in our direction before planting itself in a tree. If we hadn't ducked, we would all have been decapitated. Or at least skinned us. Our new enemy flickered, landing on the sword, before inspecting us.

Next to me, Tazuna shivered. To him, our new enemy was just another bad guy (although his entrance had been a bit more impressive than the last one). To me, our new enemy was a highly skilled missing-nin from Kiri.

Zabuza Momochi.

His chakra was impressive. Scary, almost. It was tainted dark. Layered. The more I tried to feel around his chakra, the colder it was.

He was tall and muscular from what I could see. His skin was an odd color, almost as if he hadn't washed himself in a long, lonnnggg time. He was shirtless and had weird camouflage arm warmers, but I think his most noticeable feature would have to be the bandages he had wrapped around the lower part of his face as a mask.

"Ah, so we meet at last, Kakashi of the Sharingan," greeted Zabuza, nodding at our sensei.

I felt Sasuke tense and shot him a quick, curious glance that he ignored.

"Momochi, Zabuza," smiled Kakashi-sensei at him.

Naruto tensed, ready to rush forward armed with a kunai and I quickly moved forward to stop him.

A kunai against the Kiribouchou? Was he _mad_? Even a multitude of his clones wouldn't be enough against Zabuza. He was on Kakashi's level. And um, _hello_, it wasn't even two weeks ago that we had barely managed to pass Kakashi-sensei's bell test.

"You don't just rush in," I said, voice rising because of the stress I felt.

No matter what they teach you at school, it was really hard to keep your emotions in check when put in this kind of situation.

"Ren's right. You three guard Tazuna. I'll take care of our enemy this time," said Kakashi-sensei sharply.

It took us all a bit by surprise. We had never heard Kakashi-sensei sound so serious. I think it was the change of tone that convinced Naruto to retreat by Tazuna's side.

".. But to fight you, I'll have to use this," said Kakashi-sensei, lifting his forehead protector off his eye.

We couldn't see Kakashi-sensei's eye from where we were standing, so instead I chose to observe Zabuza and his reaction.

"What? Already? I feel _honored_ to see the Sharingan this early on," said Zabuza, voice dripping with sarcasm. "You know, back at the Assasination Unit in Kiri we were told to eliminate you on the spot. Kakashi, the man who copied over a thousand jutsus."

My teammates looked at Kakashi-sensei with a new found admiration. I might have as well, if I hadn't already known. And anyways, I was too busy anticipating the fight. My muscles almost hurt, so much they were tense.

"Sha-rin-gan?" mumbled Naruto from my left. "Sharingan this, Sharingan that. What the hell is it?"

"A doujutsu," answered Sasuke from my right, somewhat gravely. "People who this skill, have the ability to read and defeat all types of gen, tai, and ninjutsu. But.. that's not all the abilities that the Sharingan has..."

"Heh. Yes, that's only scratching the surface," said Zabuza, smirking. "The scariest part of the Sharingan is that it allows you to analyze your opponent's jutsus and copy them instantly."

Naruto and Tazuna gaped, impressed. I might have been as well if I didn't already know what the Sharingan was and looked like.

In truth, the Sharingan was a thousand times scarier and more complicated than what Zabuza had described it as. It was a weapon. Scarier than any sort of pointy metal or long decapitating swords.

And if Kakashi-sensei, a non-Uchiha member who only posessed one out of the two red eyes, was that powerful... I shivered, thinking about how powerful Sasuke would turn out to be.

"My job is to eliminate the bridge builder, but to do that, it seems I have to get past you first, Kakashi," announced Zabuza."Yes, enough chit chat. Let's cut down to the chase, shall we?"

He yanked his sword out, and landed on the body of water.

The atmosphere seemed to have suddenly dulled, dampened, and darkened.

"What? He's walking on water!" exclaimed Naruto, looking shocked.

"_Hiding in the Mist Technique_!"

I braced myself. The Hiding in the Mist Technique had a rather long time of preperation so maybe if Kakashi-sensei attacked now, we could have a chance of getting out of here.

Just as if he had read my mind, Zabuza seemed to have disappeared and cloaked his chakra well.

I looked over at Kakashi-sensei, but he was quickly disappearing in a thick cloud of mist.

I took a deep breath. Faith. I had to have faith in Kakashi-sensei. He was one of the most powerful ninjas in Konoha and possibly in the world. So I had to trust him. I gulped, refraining from shivering again, as the fabricated mist started to engulf us as well.

Unlike the mist we had gone through in Kaji's boat last night, this mist was cold. Extremely cold.

"He'll come after me first," informed Kakashi-sensei as if that was supposed to reassure us. "It's not like I can use my Sharingan perfectly..."

Great.

This was just getting better and better.

Zabuza seemed to be everywhere at once. The mist was mixed in with his chakra and it was hard to pinpoint the exact source. In fact, it was hard to locate anyone at this point. Zabuza's chakra confused me, since it kept on moving everywhere.

"Be on your guard! He's known for his silent killing technique!" warned Kakashi-sensei somwhere in front of me.

"Silent killing?" stuttered Tazuna from behind me.

Zabuza's laugh echoed, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

"Eight choices," he said softly, and I shivered because it seemed like he was right behind me, whispering in my ear. "Larynx, lungs, kidney, clavical artery, jugular, spine, heart. So many choices... but which one will be my attack point?"

I almost doubled over when his wave of Killing Intent washed over us.

Back at Konoha, sometimes people used the Killing Intent but it was mostly out of anger or irritation. It wasn't a nice feeling but it was no where near as horrible as this.

This was real.

He really wanted to kill us.

I gripped my kunai so hard that the sides started to dig into my skin. The pain cleared my thoughts a little, making it easier to breathe.

That was until another wave of Killing Intent rolled over us, drowning us ten times over. It was suffocating, making me choke. I wanted nothing more than to-

"Relax guys," said Kakashi-sensei, looking over at us, smiling. "I'll protect us all with my life. Nothing will happen."

It was never a good thing to promise things like that, but the words instantly calmed me. Next to me, Sasuke lowered a kunai he had hovering over himself.

Now that I could think a bit clearer, I tried to organize my thoughts.

First of all, this fog/mist annoyed me. I couldn't see anything and Zabuza's chakra everywhere distracted me. Unforunately, I didn't know any wind jutsus powerful enough to clear up all this fog.

I _had_ to pinpoint Zabuza. He kept on moving everywhere but there were definitely two sources of his chakra. So.. a clone? Which one was the clone?

I tried to ignore his misty chakra floating everywhere and instead concentrated on comparing both sources. One was colder. Darker. So was that the real Zabuza? The sources kept on moving and I couldn't keep track of which one was which.

Chakra flickered again before solidifying right behind me.

I whipped around, sword ready, but Kakashi-sensei had already rushed forward, impalling what I now assumed to be Zabuza's clone with a kunai, right in the heart.

"Good job sensei!" said Naruto, grinning. "That freak was all talk after all!"

His happy face distorted into one of horror when another Zabuza clone appeared behind Kakashi-sensei.

The clone that Kakashi-sensei had struck exploded in droplets of water.

"It's over," he cackled.

I grabbed Tazuna and pulled him aside, motioning for the other two to do the same. It would be extremely bad for us if we were to get caught up in the fight.

I watched fake Zabuza and fake Kakashi-sensei exchange blows.

Having a clone do all the fighting was more of a precautionary move- it allowed you to analyze your opponent from the shadows and try to figure out his fighting style.

Analyze your opponent from the shadows? That reminded me that I also had Haku to look out for. I searched the surrounding grounds for another non-plant chakra signal. East. 56 meters. Falling snow. Hm. He didn't look like he was about to attack, but I couldn't just ignore his presence.

My eyes riveted back to the battle before me. The mist had started to clear up a great deal. I supposed that Zabuza couldn't hold up that technique forever- especially considering that it used up a lot of chakra.

Zabuza managed to cut the clone Kakashi in two, making it explode in turn into a fountain of water.

"Don't move!" warned Kakashi-sensei holding up a kunai to Zabuza's neck. "It's over!"

I silently wondered if this was another decoy from Kakashi-sensei.

"Wow!" breathed Naruto, looking at the two jounins with warm approval.

"Hehehe," laughed Zabuza again, making Naruto's face turn into one of confusion again. "You still don't get it. There is no way you can beat me with your monkey-like imitations."

Monkey-like? My eyebrows rose in confusion. What kind of insult..?

"But that was impressive of you!" said Zabuza as if talking to a child. "At that time, you had already copied my Water Clone jutsu.. You had him talk to distract me and give you the opportunity to watch me. Nice plan. But.. I'm not that easy."

Another Zabuza - the real one this time, I think- appeared right behind Kakashi-sensei with a kunai. As a reflex, Kakashi-sensei finished off the Zabuza clone which left a puddle of water behind.

I bit my lip anxiously, watching as Kakashi-sensei blocked the onslaught of attacks Zabuza aimed at him.

It was proabably wrong, but I couldn't help but silently admire Zabuza's sword and how gracefully he handled it. Mom had taught me a little about the Seven Swordsmen, though to her they were more of a legend than a real thing. The Kubikiribocho was one of the seven swords passed down from the previous generation of swordsmen. Each sword had a unique quality and ability; The Kubikiribocho could reform itself if it got chipped or broken using the iron from the blood of its victims. It was kind of disgusting, actually.

Still, the sword was huge and probably weighed a lot. I remembered how hard it had been for me to master my small sword... Zabuza truly was skilled in kenjutsu. He didn't even looked tired after swinging it around with precision! I would have been exhausted after only a couple of swings, despite all my training with swords.

I blinked in horror as Kakashi-sensei tried to escape from Zabuza's attacks in the water. I didn't understand what he was doing.. From my standpoint, hiding in the water while fighting Zabuza was so stupid that I wondered if it was Kakashi-sensei's plan to get caught or something.

"Water Release: Water Prison!" said Zabuza, forming a globe of water, encircling the real Kakashi-sensei inside it.

We were screwed. We were screwed. We were screwed.

"Hehehe," cackled Zabuza. "You tried to escape to the water. Big mistake... Now you're trapped! It's harder when you can't move, isn't it? Well Kakashi.. we can always finish this up later... First, I have to take care of them..."

I watched as he lifted his available hand to form the clone seal.

"Water Clone Jutsu!"

Zabuza's clone formed in the water and dragged itself out, reminding me somewhat of a zombie.

.. I guess the only good thing about this situation was that, in order to keep Kakashi-sensei locked up inside, Zabuza could only use one arm. Which means the only thing that could attack us at this point was Zabuza's clone.

But Zabuza's clone was still powerful. If anyone had to go against it, it would probably be best if it was me. Not saying that my teammates were useless or weak. It's just that Sasuke's fire jutsus were useless against Zabuza's wind jutsus and that Zabuza would be able to take out Naruto's clones in a heartbeat. I had had training in kenjutsu and my wind jutsus were better suited against his water jutsus.

But the thing was, I had no desire at all to go against him.

Up until now, I had done a pretty darn good job at laying low. The only jutsu that I had used in front of my teammates had been the shadow clone technique.

"Psh," tsked Zabuza. "Wearing forehead protectors like you're ninja. You don't even know what it means to be ninja. A ninja is someone who has survived many life and death situations."

The clone started talking now, looking at us like we were some kind of joke. "Only when you're listed in my handbook, can you call yourself ninja. You are not ninjas."

He made a hand seal, flickering over to Naruto before I had time to register what was happening, and kicked him straight in the jaw.

"Naruto!" I called out, the kunai in my swirling automatically toward Zabuza's heart.

He stopped it, obviously, and turned to face me.

Great.

I was next.

"Run!" said Kakashi-sensei. "You have to run! Take Tazuna-san and run while you still can! I can't help you while I'm stuck here. You have to run!"

The desperation in his voice caught me off guard. I looked over at Tazuna.

He looked extremely nervous and scared but at least he wasn't screaming for his death.

"But- But what about you sensei? We can't just leave you!" said Naruto, looking flabergasted.

Yeah, we certainly couldn't leave sensei behind.

Kakashi-sensei didn't have that much time before he started choking, so we had to get him out of the water prison. But how? The water walls were as hard as steel and basically impossible to break through. Our only option would be for us to break the jutsu.

The real Zabuza had to maintain his arm outstretched for the jutsu to hold. So maybe... ?

Before I had time to come up with a concrete, fail-proof plan, Naruto decided to charge.

"Don't be ridiculous!" protested Kakashi-sensei. "You don't have a choice! Zabuza is out of your league!"

Zabuza's clone gave Naruto another good kick that made him stumble back next to us.

He got back up slowly, and tied his forehead protector back on, looking determined as ever.

"Hey there, eyebrow-less freak," he called, making the clone twitch slightly. "Put this in your handbook... the man who will one day become Hokage... Naruto Uzumaki! Hidden Leaf ninja!"

I couldn't stop myself from smiling at him.

Even though we could very well die in the next ten minutes, he was still brave. He was still Naruto.

And what had I done?

I could maybe take out a clone. Maybe. I just... I just didn't want to.

Maybe Zabuza was right after all. I didn't deserve to be called ninja. I wasn't ready to risk my life after all. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to take my chances. I had prepared myself this entire time to become stronger... But what was the point in becoming strong if I was never going to fight?

"Those you don't follow the rules are considered trash but those you abandon their friends are worse than trash!" said Naruto, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"He's right," nodded Sasuke. "The situation became impossible once you let yourself get caught. No matter how fast or far we run, he'll find us and finish us off."

Tazuna gulped, but agreed with Sasuke, "I'm the one who brought you all into this."

I nodded as well, although reluctantly.

Worse than trash...? I hadn't ever taken sensei's words to heart, but..

"Are you all stupid? You don't stand a chance against me," Zabuza smirked. "You three don't understand what it means to be ninja!"

Naruto shook beside me, enraged.

"Wearing a headband doesn't make you ninja," scoffed Zabuza.

No, I suppose it didn't. Just like wearing a hunter-nin mask didn't make you a hunter-nin.

"They call me Demon of the Mist," continued Zabuza. "You guys wanna know why?"

I widened my eyes, suddenly remembering the story.

"When I was your age, my hands were already covered in blood."

"Demon of the Mist," said Kakashi-sensei, eyes narrowing.

"Oh?" asked Zabuza pleasantly surprised.

"Years ago, in the Hidden Mist Village, also known as the Blood Mist Village, there was one final obstacle in becoming a ninja," said Kakashi-sensei, frowning.

"The graduation exam they had in Kirigakure," I said, the information coming out before I could stop it.

"You know about it?" asked Zabuza, looking at me.

I shook my head, not wanting him to force me to explain what in entailed, "No, I don't."

"What exam?" interjected Naruto.

Zabuza started laughing again, and I shook my head in distate.

He had a creepy, raspy sort of laugh, Zabuza did, but I was getting slowly used to it.

"What exam?" repeated Naruto, starting to get frustrated.

"Fights to the death between the students."

Naruto gasped in horror and even Sasuke grunted in surprise. Tazuna shivered and retreated a little more, against the trunk of a tree. I supposed that story was enough to horrify a civilian of ninjas forever.

Fights to the death between the students... the concept reminded me a little of The Hunger Games, a book I had read a little in my old life. I didn't remember the specifics, but I was pretty sure it had to do with fights to the death between friends, or something of the sort.

"You were forced to fight friends that you had trained with, eaten with, and shared dreams with... These friends were pitted against each other until one of them lost their life," he explained, smirking.

Kakashi frowned again before adding, "10 years ago, the graduation exam was forced to change because of what had happened the previous year..."

He seemed to hesitate before continuing, "A young boy, who wasn't even ninja, had killed without hesitation over a hundred of the students."

"Hehehe," laughed Zabuza. "The good old times..."

Sasuke tensed up next to me while Naruto gasped, finally connecting the dots.

He looked over at us, the Killing Intent hitting us once more. I watched helplessly as the clone made a seal once more, and flickered over to Sasuke this time, punching him to a pulp.

"Sasuke!" I yelled, horified. I hadn't been able to block any of the hits.

I hiccuped as Zabuza punched Sasuke for a third time, drawing blood. Sasuke was good at taijustu but he didn't have the speed to- he was going to-

I reacted automatically.

Right before Zabuza's clone would have crunched Sasuke's rib cage, I flickered over and moved him out of the way, sitting him down at a safe distance from the clone.

"What were you thinking?" I said almost hysterically. "You almost got yourself killed!"

Sasuke ignored my gaze and instead looked over at Naruto, who looked over at us in horror.

He was scared. We were all scared.

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

Naruto had risked his life and Sasuke had as well. All I was good at was running away.

But I had to at least _try _right? I could try. I could. But..

"You guys..." I said, looking between them. "We need a plan."

"What do you suggest then?" asked Sasuke, looking irritated.

"Naruto make some clones to guard Tazuna," I said, looking at Tazuna.

Naruto nodded, glad to be able to help, and made five clones and placed them to guard Tazuna in the standard formation.

With my body flicker technique, I could maybe get past the clone. But then what?

Maybe Naruto could make a bunch of clones, and while the clones fought with Zabuza's clone, Sasuke and I could go and-

"Sasuke!" called Naruto. "I have a plan!"

I looked over at him quickly, wondering what he was up to.

"Hn," nodded Sasuke, as if he understood everything perfectly.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" yelled Naruto, producing at least two dozen shadow clones.

"Shadow clones?" said Zabuza, looking around, analyzing the situation quickly. "And quite a few."

I didn't understand. Naruto had tried this technique back during the bell test, but it hadn't been very successfull. At all. And it's not like Naruto's level had improved a great deal since then. There was no way-

"Charge!"

The mass of clones jumped on Zabuza but were instantly repelled by a couple swipes of Zabuza's sword.

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto, throwing him a fuuma shuriken that strangely..

Oh. I see.

Sasuke caught it and stood up straighter.

"A shuriken won't work on me," scoffed the clone.

"Shadow Windmill," announced Sasuke, before jumping up into the air and aiming the shuriken at Zabuza.

I watched, impressed to say the least, as the shuriken whizzed past the clone and toward the real deal. Zabuza caught it in his free hand, laughing before realizing there was a second fuuma shuriken coming towards him.

"A second one? Still too easy," he smirked, jumping over it.

The shuriken that he had dodged poofed into Naruto, who threw a kunai at him.

Zabuza's eyes widened in surprise. He drew away the arm that kept Kakashi-sensei in place at the last second, to avoid the kunai.

Kakashi-sensei was released from the water prison, standing on top of the surface of the water, dripping wet while Naruto fell into the water.

"Impressive plan, Naruto," grinned Kakashi-sensei. "You all have all sure grown."

I frowned at this, not really agreeing. I had been useless. Naruto had been the one to come up with the plan in the end, while I was stuck guarding Tazuna.

Naruto explained how his plan worked happily, and I tried not to appear as if I was brooding or anything.

"It was just luck," smirked Sasuke.

"Luck?!" repeated Tazuna, looking scandalized.

"Heh," scoffed Zabuza. "All I did was get distracted and released the jutsu."

"No," corrected Kakashi-sensei. "You were forced to release the jutsu."

We all tensed again as the tone of his voice changed.

"The same technique won't work twice... so... what will you do now?"

It seemed like an eternity before both jumped back at the same time at the "safe" distance from each other.

"Sharingan," breathed Sasuke, looking at Kakashi-sensei wide-eyed.

The two jounin had started to mutter a long set of seals.

"Water Dragon Jutsu, I think," I commented offhandedly, trying to count how many seals they were using.

31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.

"Water Dragon Jutsu!" they said simultaneously.

My eyes widened as two huge swirling masses of water sprouted from the ground, in the shape of intimidating dragons, disrupting the calm surface of the water. They intertwined, rising high above us, before colliding and scattering into giant masses of fluid.

I braced myself as a wave hit us. Tazuna fell back because of the force of the wave. I helped him get up, watching with prudence as the two water dragons went at it again.

Beneath the fighting dragons, Zabuza and Kakashi were at a deadlock, the Kiribouchou against a simple kunai.

As the two dragons cancelled each other out, Zabuza and Kakashi jumped away from each other again.

I frowned again, watching as they started another set of seals.

I didn't have much time.

These techniques were chakra draining and the winner was probably going to be who posessed the larger chakra stores.

As another wave of water hit us, less intently this time, I created a clone to take my place.

I closed my eyes, using the body flicker technique for a second time today and headed toward the source of the chakra.

Landing lightly on the same branch, I held up my katana to his neck.

"Listen here, _hunter-nin," _I said, eyes narrowing. "We don't have much time. One wrong move and I cut your head off."

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A/N:

Finally an update! (:

I hope you liked this chapter.

Big, big thanks to all who left reviews and messages in my inbox. I think there was a crazy number of 50 something reviews for the last chapter. You guys are the best, really.

Anyways, for those who haven't re-read the changes that I made on the previous chapters, feel free to do so. The 'big' changes start from chapter 7, I think, so if you have any time I highly suggest to read at least that chapter again so you won't be confused later on.

For some reason this chapter took the longest to write, most likely because I kept on changing its outcome. One moment I killed off Haku, another Zabuza, another the both of them... I was really confused.

I think I'll stick with this idea because I like it best.

Thank you guys (again) for being so patient with me.

No snippet this time, but there will be one next chapter, promise! (:


	16. Chapter 15: Training

___If you got a second chance at life, what would do?_

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- Chapter 15 : Training -

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"He who leaps for the sky may fall, it's true. But he may also fly_._" - _Delirium_, Lauren Oliver

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I hesitated for a second more, wondering if what I was doing was right.

There would obviously be consequences to my actions... but were they going to be for the better? I could only hope so.

"There's something you need to know," I said, my words sounding horribly rushed.

I didn't have much time, but I had to do this.

"If you really care for Zabuza, you have to know- you have to know, that Gatou is planning on killing you off eventually."

There. There would be no going back now. I had said it.

"He'll never pay you for your services," I said quietly.

I wondered if he Haku had even heard me. I was almost certain my words had been drowned out by the rush of water caused by Kakashi-sensei's jutsu.

"Just- just keep that in mind, okay?" I said, taking two steps back and lowering my sword. "I don't want to have to kill you. But if you try to harm the people I care about, then I won't hold back anymore."

The jutsu's effects were coming to an end, and I knew my time was up.

Haku hadn't said anything- he didn't have to. I still had no idea if he would believe me or not (I was the enemy after all), but I prayed that he would. I really did. He had been u naturally silent but I could see that his attention was now focused back on Zabuza.

I gathered chakra and used a body replacement technique, switching places with my shadow clone down below.

I blinked and turned to look at Sasuke to see if he had notice my disappearance and reappearance. He was, fortunately, too engrossed with Kakashi-sensei's fight, so I used his distraction to dispel my clone that was now up in the tree branches.

The final wave brought Zabuza slamming against a tree trunk not too far from us. Getting caught in that kind of jutsu was sure to be exhausting, and I silently wondered where Naruto was. Had he gotten wiped out as well?

I sighed in relief as I saw his blob of yellow hair pop up from the water's surface.

"This is the end," said Kakashi-sensei solemnly, bringing my attention back to the two jounin.

"Can you see the future?" asked Zabuza finally, his voice raspier than before.

A quick check confirmed that his chakra stores were dangerously low.

"Yes," said Kakashi-sensei, holding up his kunai simply. "Your future is death."

Suddenly two senbon, flying faster than I had ever managed to throw them, whizzed past us to implant themselves in Zabuza's neck with scary accuracy.

I watched frowning, as Zabuza's form dropped dead and toppled face first into the dirt.

Well, I supposed he wasn't actually dead. It was just a temporary state of death.

Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, and Tazuna turned around, trying to locate the source of the senbons.

They were worried, I could tell. They had every right to be... there was no way to tell if this next person was a foe or a friend.

"You were right," said Haku lightly. "He did die."

Kakashi-sensei immediately jumped down from the branch he had squatted on, and went to take Zabuza's pulse.

"He really is dead," said Kakashi-sensei, a bit incredulously, looking back at Haku.

"Thank you very much," said Haku, bowing slightly. "I had been waiting for a very long time for an opportunity to kill Zabuza."

Kakashi-sensei straightened up adding, "According to your mask, you're a hunter-nin from Kiri, correct?"

"Yes, you are very well informed," he said, and I wondered for a split second if he was looking at me while he said that, but it was hard to tell because of the mask he wore.

"A hunter-nin!" said Naruto angrily, appearing next to us, clenching his fists.

"Do you even _know_ what a hunter-nin does?" I sighed. "It's their job to go after and kill exiled ninjas in order to preserve their village's secrets because well... A body contains many secrets, even when dead."

"Yes, that is my job," said Haku and I tried not to frown at how much dishonest chakra he was emitting.

Would he listen to my warning? Would he? Questions clouded my thoughts.

"Who are you?!" shouted Naruto, pointing at Haku after running up to him. "Just who the hell are you?!"

"Calm down," said Kakashi-sensei walking up next to Naruto.

In that moment I couldn't help but notice how strikingly different they were. Kakashi-sensei was cool as a cucumber while Naruto looked so small next to him, panting and agitated, his dripping orange jumpsuit contrasting with Kakashi-sensei's dark clothing.

"He's not the enemy," added Kakashi-sensei.

"I don't care about that! But.. he _killed_ _Zabuza_!" protested Naruto, looking distressed. "He... He was so strong! Yet he was beaten by a kid like me! We... We look like _idiots_!"

I hummed, pursing my lips together in thought.

Haku did 'finish Zabuza off' in the end, but only because Zabuza had been extremely worn out and almost out of chakra anyway. Kakashi-sensei had been the one to beat Zabuza, really.

I supposed it would always be like that though. The hero would always be the one to drive the knife through the enemy's heart. Nevermind the hundreds of soldiers that had died in order to weaken him beforehand.

"I can't accept this!"

"I understand how you feel..." said Kakashi-sensei after listening to Naruto's tirade. "But in this world, there are kids younger than you that are stronger than me."

Sasuke gritted his teeth next to me, probably feeling the same way Naruto was now. Understandable reaction. It was annoying to know that a five year old was stronger than you, even after all your hard work. It was frustrating, irritating, and just plain depressing, but Asuma-sensei had taught me long ago that it was best to just accept this. You would always be weaker and stronger than someone, it's just how things worked. The faster you learned how to accept that, the better off you would be.

I watched as Haku used the body flicker technique to appear next to Zabuza.

"Goodbye. Your battle ends here for now," said Haku, shifting Zabuza's weight over his shoulder in order to carry him.

He used the body flicker technique to leave in a swirl of wind and leaves.

I heard Kakashi-sensei sigh, adjusting his forehead protector over his eye again, while Naruto ran up looking for Haku.

"He'll be gone by now," explained Kakashi-sensei, turning back towards us. "Well, we've been held up long enough. Like Tazuna-san said, the bridge-"

Suddenly, his visible eye drooped, and I watched with confusion and shock as my sensei collapsed to the floor.

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto.

We all rushed to his side.

"What's the matter with him? He's not.. He's not..?" said Naruto frantically.

"No," I said, trying to stay calm. "You can see him breathing, see?"

I crouched down next to him and closed my eyes to concentrate. He had very little chakra left.

It was a wonder he had been able to use all those jutsus and the Sharingan in one fight for so long before passing out. It was a good thing the battle had ended when it had, because a couple minutes more and sensei would have probably died.

Luck was on our side. In a very twisted, sick way.

"He's just out of chakra. He'll need to rest," I said. "Is it okay if we bring him back to your place Tazuna? We're not really in a state to fight anymore."

Tazuna nodded once, "Yes, of course."

"OK, so who wants to carry sensei back to the old man's place?" I asked, getting up.

"Eh?" said Naruto, looking down at Kakashi-sensei.

"Well someone needs to carry him. It should be the strongest out of all of us who should probably do it though. We wouldn't want to tire out the weakest people," I said matter-of-factly.

"The strongest? OK, fine I'll do it!" said Naruto, reaching down to carry Kakashi-sensei at the same time Sasuke had reached for him.

"Eh?"

They both glared at each other.

"If you two can't decide, why don't you two just carry him together?" I said, sighing. "You guys aren't helping sensei whatsoever. He could die you know."

"Fine, fine," grumbled Naruto, latching one of Kakashi-sensei's arms around his shoulder, while Sasuke did the same with the other one whilst glaring at us.

"Good job," I grinned.

"But I'm still the strongest," added Naruto for good measure.

"As if, dead last," Sasuke retorted.

"Shut up bastard!" said Naruto angrily.

"Shut up, both of you. Do you want to disturb Kakashi-sensei after all he did today?" I said, frowning again.

I watched, highly amused, as they both shut their traps and glared at me.

"Come on, off to the old geezer's house!"

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When we had arrived back at Tazuna's place yesterday, I had made a simple chakra transfusion, just to ensure that he really wouldn't die on us. Still, he had rested for a long time now without waking up, which was worrisome, but according to the medical scrolls, some ninja could stay knocked out for three to four entire days. I really hoped he would wake up soon, because my teammates were starting to get restless. I myself had to busy myself with meditation and yoga stretches, or else I was sure to end up a nervous mess. Like now.

We were all sitting in the kitchen, eating breakfast waiting for Kakashi-sensei to wake up. He had been knocked unconscious for almost 24 hours now, and we were started to get worried.

"I still didn't expect sensei to be that strong," commented Naruto, leaning back on his chair. "I mean, who knew that he had a red eye behind that headband?"

And while it was true sensei was strong and the fight between him and Zabuza had been incredible, I couldn't help but find it a bit disappointing. Kakashi-sensei was great, really he was, but, I don't know... I had been expecting more, I suppose.

"The Sharingan," I mumbled, still jotting down details in my notebook of my observations of the Wave Country. "It's called the Sharingan."

"Right," said Naruto, nodding. "Sharingan."

We stayed in silence for a couple minutes before Naruto spoke up again.

"Do you think he'll be OK?"

"Yes," I answered, not looking up from my notebook. "I healed his physical wounds on his hands. Now all he needs is-"

I froze and snapped my head up, feeling a shift in sensei's chakra.

"He's up," I said simply, getting up from my chair. "Let's go see how he is."

My two teammates exchanged glances and stood up as well, following me towards the guest room we were staying in.

"Sensei's awake! Sensei's awake!" said Naruto excitedly, as he entered the room.

We all sat down next to him, observing him closely.

"You'll have to rest for a couple of days before your chakra stores get back to normal," I said, frowning.

"Hahaha," laughed Tazuna, standing at the doorway. "Well it's a good thing he got rid of that strong ninja! Now we'll be safe for a while."

"Hm," I mused, thinking back to my encounter with Haku. "Well.. about that.."

All heads turned towards me, and I felt uneasy under their stares.

"I was thinking about it," I said, starting to recite the lie I had concocted earlier. "And hunter-nin are supposed to dispose of their victims' corpse on the spot, right?"

Kakashi-sensei nodded slowly, and I knew by the way his chakra shifted that he had caught on.

"It's just that," I continued, choosing my words carefully. "That hunter-nin we encountered didn't do that did he? He just.. sort of left with the body. It's... weird."

"Yes, that's true. Hunter-nins usually get on with their business immediately..." said Kakashi-sensei, sighing. "I'm afraid we've been duped."

"What.. what are you talking about?" said Naruto, his eyebrows scrunching up.

"Zabuza's still alive."

"EHHH?!"

"What- _What_?!"

"But, but you _said_ he died!"

"Yes, yes I did... but Zabuza was probably just put in a near-death state."

"No way..."

"So that means we have to face him again, right?"

"I'm afraid so."

"But-but you're in no condition to fight!"

"That's why I'm going to put you guys under some training," Kakashi-sensei replied.

I couldn't stop smiling at that. _Finally_! Though, given the circumstances..

"We have a week at most until Zabuza recovers his strength and fights back," I informed. "I don't know if a week is enough to learn something useful against Zabuza."

"You guys have grown at a surprisingly rapid rate, so I think that if all goes well, this training will be beneficial to you all," he said, smiling at us. "We'll start this afternoon. Be ready."

Eh. No need to tell me twice.

I got up and stretched, feeling great.

"Woo hoo sensei! I'm excited already! What kind of jutsu are you going to teach us? Huh? Huh?"

"You're just wasting your time," a tiny voice scoffed from the doorway.

I glanced over to see Tsunami's son, Inari, I believe, who sported a scowl that rivaled Sasuke's. He was so adorable, really. I had to fight a weird urge to hug him senseless in order to annoy him even more.

"Eh? And who exactly are you?" said Naruto, displeased.

"Inari!" said old man Tazuna, grinning.

"Grandpa!" said the little boy, running over to Tazuna and hugging him.

Aww.

"Inari," sighed Tsunami, shaking her head. "Say hello to these ninja. They're the ones who escorted grandpa back home and protected him from Gatou."

Inari peeked his head out from under Tazuna's arm, looked us all over, his scowl returning.

"They should just go home. They're going to die against against Gatou."

I frowned at him, suppressing another urge to roll my eyes.

As a ninja, I wasn't supposed to fear death. And my entire life I had believed that. I trained for the sole purpose of becoming strong enough to change history and make it even just a little better.

But the fight with Zabuza had made me realize several things. I was scared. And I certainly didn't want to die. Even if I was in the animated world of Naruto.

Maybe with experience and age, I would finally learn how to become not only physically strong, but mentally strong as well. Then maybe, I would be ready. But I still had a long way to go. Even that I knew.

I hardly noticed as Naruto jumped to his feet next to me. I'd like to think it was because I was getting used to his... eccentricities.

"Listen here, brat!" he said, pointing a finger at him. "You should have more respect for us! We're ninjas of the Hidden Village in the Leaves! And I'm going to one day become Hokage, the strongest of all of them!"

He waits for his words to take effect, but Inari only scowled harder before turning his face away.

"You should just go home," he said finally. "Unless you want to die."

"Heroes don't fear death," Naruto replies angrily.

His simple words make me freeze. There's so much conviction, so much honesty, that it makes me finally _understand_ why Naruto is so different from all of us. Naruto was born a hero. He's everything that I wish to be.

"How stupid. Heroes don't exist!" yelled back Inari, snapping me from my thoughts.

Naruto clenches his fists and makes a move toward Inari.

"I'm going to go train," I said, my words making Naruto stop short. "We're wasting our time here."

Sasuke turns to stare at me, and finally gets up silently and follows me out of the room.

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"Well? Ren, aren't you going to start?"

Kakashi-sensei's voice snapped me out of my train of thoughts and I looked up to see the Naruto and Sasuke had already attempted the tree climbing exercise.

"Well- it- I," I stuttered, my cheeks growing hot.

The other two were looking at me curiously and it just added to my discomfort.

Was it okay to show what I could do? Sakura had gotten this exercise down fairly quickly, if my memories were correct. So if Sakura could do it, so could I.

"Um, OK," I said, shifting my weight from foot to foot before directing chakra into my feet.

I didn't know whether I was supposed to run up my tree as well because I didn't really need the momentum, but I did so anyways.

I reached the branch Kakashi-sensei was hanging upside down on and sat down next to him.

"There. Did it," I said, observing my team's reactions closely.

Naruto was gaping up at me while Sasuke just seemed to glower at me.

"Good job Ren," said Kakashi-sensei smiling. "You have extremely good chakra control."

"Thanks sensei," I said, thinking back to the time when he had seen me manipulate chakra thread.

"Well, it seems the best at chakra control is Ren, the girl," started Kakashi-sensei before I cut him off.

"What do you mean by _the girl_? Girls can be very capable ninjas," I said, frowning at him.

"You're right. I'm sorry, that was badly worded," said Kakashi-sensei, apologizing. "It seems Ren is the closest to becoming Hokage, unlike _someone_ I know. And the Uchiha clan is just disappointing. It's not all that after all."

I cringed.

Even though Kakashi-sensei was trying to motivate them to work harder, he was seriously not going about it the right way.

"There's no way you'll see _me_ ever become Hokage," I scoffed, trying to appease the growing tension.

Seriously though. Being Hokage was the last thing I wanted to become. "And the Uchiha clan is really powerful," I said, in utmost seriousness. "I mean sure most of them were arrogant pricks, with sticks up their arses, but.. but not all of them were."

I thought back to all my memories of Shisui. I thought about all the sacrifices Itachi had made.

"Some Uchiha are strong and know the real meaning of strength," I said finally, fully aware of Sasuke's eyes boring at me. "Don't you agree?"

"Hmm," said Kakashi-sensei, and I took that as a yes.

I spent the next twenty or so minutes watched my teammates intently.

"I realize that you are able to execute this exercise but it is still a wise choice to practice how long you can hold it," Kakashi-sensei said next to me.

"Er, if you say so sensei," I replied, making a clone and ordering it to climb the tree for me.

Kakashi-sensei sighed, but didn't say anything else.

"Fine, if you want something productive to do, go accompany Tazuna-san to the bridge," Kakashi said. "And watch over him until his work for the day is done."

"Fine," I replied, grumpily taking my eyes off of my teammates.

I had been observing them for a while now, and I was fairly certain each of them were doing wrong. They were improving, but not by much. There was an obvious lack of focus from each of them.

I got up, leaving them for now, and went back to old man Tazuna's to go fetch him.

"Hey Tazuna-san," I said approaching him.

He was sitting at the kitchen table scribbling furiously, papers scattered just about everywhere. I peered over his shoulder and saw that these were blueprints of the bridge. Or were they different bridges? I wasn't sure.

"Kakashi-sensei said that we can go to the bridge," I announced, still trying to decipher his messy handwriting.

At first I thought he hadn't heard me, but suddenly he was on his feet ready to go, equipment packed and everything. Impressive speed for a civilian.

"Alright then, what are we waiting for? I don't have all day!"

"Just lead the way," I sighed, following him.

On the way there Tazuna took great joy in explaining his plans for the bridge. The construction was already more than halfway finished, and they just needed a little bit more time in order to finish the bridge. It would only take two to three weeks until the product was finalized. This was the largest and longest bridge he had built so far, and Tazuna was determined to get it right.

"Many people are counting on me, whether they'll admit it or not."

I glanced over at him.

Tazuna didn't look like a hero. He was old. He liked to drink. He had temper almost as awful as Sakura's.

But he gave people hope.

Was that what 'hero' meant? Giving people hope?

"You're brave," I drawled finally. "You're brave for a civilian."

He was risking his life for his village.

Yes, Tazuna was a hero.

I only wished I could say the same for me.

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* * *

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Number of wood planks Tazuna carried: 26

Number of bridge sketches I drew: 3

Number of times I looked at the clouds and thought of Shika: 61

Number of times Tazuna scowled at me: 13

Number of times I scowled back: 4

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There really wasn't much to do. I walked around the bridge and its close surroundings, getting used to the area. Apart from drawing and gribbling down notes or practicing my chakra threads, the only thing left to do was observe Tazuna and his workers.

There weren't many of them working, but they did get work done quickly and efficiently. Most seemed tense, and for some reason I didn't think it was because of the strain their work inflicted.

I watched impassively as they carried wood planks from one area to another, nailing them down, cutting off excess bits and pieces, dried off their sweating foreheads, stretched out, drank out of-

"Tazuna!" a worker said, approaching the area where I was quietly sitting.

"What is it Giichi?" said Tazuna warily.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I think it's for the best if I stop working at the bridge..."

My eyes snapped towards him. He looked like he was in his late forties. He had a deep tan, probably due to working outside in the sun all the time. He was shaking slightly, but I didn't know if it was because he was scared of Gatou or Tazuna's wrath. Because the look Tazuna was sending him looked deadly.

"Not you as well! You can't give up now!" he shouted.

"Look, we've been close for a while now," he said, voice trembling, but expression set in stone. "But we're bound to get noticed soon... And if we get killed then we would have done all of this work for nothing. Why don't we just quit building the bridge?"

"No, I can't do that," said Tazuna, shaking his head. "I can't let them down."

"Let who down?" Giichi demanded.

Tazuna ignored him, "This is our bridge. The one we built together, the one we believed would be the answer to all our country's problems. I can't stop now, I've come too far."

"But if we lose our lives then all of this-"

"Let's take a lunch break, it's already noon," said Tazuna curtly, his eyes hardening. "You don't have to come tomorrow Giichi."

Giichi had the decency to lower his head in shame before he left.

"We'll have to stop and get some groceries before we go back home," announced Tazuna, putting away his tools.

"Alright," I said, nodding, getting off of the crate I was sitting on. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, shrugging. "I can't blame Giichi. He has a family to take care of, and if he does die, than his family won't have any income and be fed off to the wolves, so to speak."

"But you have a family as well," I pointed out.

"That's true. I love my family... but I also love my country," he said, leading me towards the center of town.

Country or family? That sounded a lot like one of those damned ninja dilemmas. The ones where you lost either way.

If Naruto had been in Tazuna's shoes, he would have built the bridge.

If Sasuke had been in Tazuna's shoes, he wouldn't have built the bridge. Or maybe he would have, just because he was so confident that he would survive any attacks Gatou directed at him.

If I had been in Tazuna's shoes, I _think_ I would have built the bridge. It was just hard to know for sure, you know? The doubt aggravated me. I _wanted_ to be sure.

I wanted to be sure I wasn't a coward. I wanted to be sure that I was strong.

"We're here," said Tazuna, snapping me out of my thoughts.

The town was rather small, but was surprisingly bustling with people.

This energy was making me uncomfortable, however. They all seemed... I don't know, _desperate_.

Some children were running about dressed in rags, some adults were walking about with signs indicating they were up for any kind of job. It was one thing to know this country was poor, it was another to actually see what desolate state it was in.

My worries and insecurities would have to wait.

"Over here," Tazuna said, motioning me over to a small building with cracked walls and peeling paint.

There wasn't much variety in the food stock. The quantity and quality of the merchandise was at best piteous, and I wasn't surprised that the food here was set at skyrocketing prices.

I sidestepped carelessly, letting a man pass when suddenly he lost balance and fell head first. He got up swiftly, stuttering and apologizing, looking embarrassed.

"Come on, let's go," grunted Tazuna, leading me through the crowd.

"I understand now," I said, after a moment of silence. "I thought I understood before, but I didn't, not really. I understand why it's so important to build the bridge, so I'm not annoyed anymore that you lied to us about the mission. I think I would have done the same."

Tazuna granted me a small smile.

"Hope is all we have left, you see."

"Yeah," I said, smiling at him thinking I understood again.

But in that moment, I didn't understand how great and true and _real_ those few words were, not really. It _would take time, but I would one day finally start to comprehend how much one word could mean._

Hope.

Hope.

Hope.

Hope.

Hope.

Because it would be all I had left.

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* * *

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A/N: New chapter (finally!)

Let me just start by saying, I love the quote used at the beginning of the chapter. It's from a book called _Delirium_ by Lauren Oliver that I love. Many more quotes to come from her!

By the way... I'm still under a high level of shock after finding out who Tobi really is! Still can't believe it.

This chapter isn't much, but oh well.

I think that throughout this mission and the next missions to come, I'll be focusing on her bonds with her teammates. Ren will be chasing after the answer of what a hero really is and establish her nindo- her ninja way.

Ren has been training herself to become stronger and fight off all evil. She didn't think that she would be scared of Zabuza or Haku (or any bad guys for that matter) because all she had to do was remind herself that these people were manga characters. Drawings. This was a good idea in theory, but when placed in a life or death situation that feels very real, I'm sure you have to end up losing your cool at some point.

Anyways, I hope you liked this story/chapter.


	17. Chapter 16: The Lost Hero

**PLEASE CHECK PROFILE FOR UPDATE ON STORY + SNIPPET OF "NEXT CHAPTER" ! **

_If you got a second chance at life, what would do?_

_._

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-Chapter 16: The Lost Hero-

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"Hope... it is the only thing stronger than fear." -President Snow, _The Hunger Games_

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- This story will change its title to 'Into the Shadows' in a couple of weeks. -

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"Wow, the food looks heavenly," Tsunami said, grinning.

Her eyes sparkled, and I briefly wondered how she could still look so happy after everything she had been through. She must have to constantly worry about her family's safety (not to mention her own), but yet here she was, her spirit strong and healthy.

She reminds me of a flower, but I haven't decided which one yet.

"Oh, I don't think I would go that far," I said, shaking my head a bit embarrassed. "This is just some of the things they teach us back home."

"Well you've done a fantastic job," she said, and I can tell that she actually means it. "You can take a break now, I can take over."

I was about to protest, but ended up agreeing to her proposal. I had places to be, people to check up on.

I sprinted into the foliage of the forest, searching for my teammates I had left earlier. I wondered how far they had progressed... They hadn't started off _that_ badly, so surely by now-

"Hey!"

Their panting and worn out figures snapped to attention, and I realized that they hadn't even heard me arrive.

Yeah, I would definitely need to work on refining their sensing abilities, because if I was to be honest here, well, they sucked.

"Shinobi rule number 82: a shinobi must always be aware of his surroundings."

The two give me an odd look before ignoring me and continuing their silent competition.

I tried not to huff and show my irritation (I mean, hello I was only trying to help!), because they're being rude, and stubborn, and... gah! Boys will be boys.

I sat down under a tree and watched them while practicing on thinning my chakra threads and thinking things through.

It was so frustrating.

We weren't even a team.

Not really.

Sasuke and Naruto hated each other and yet stayed away from me, having this mutual agreement that I was annoying. After Zabuza's attack we had all been civil to each other but we weren't _close_. We didn't trust each other with our lives. Which was normal, I supposed, at this stage in time. All teams started out like us. But then how.. how were we supposed to become a _team_. Because a _real_ team trusted each other with anything and everything... and we lacked that foundation of trust and of loyalty.

Sakura had been pretty useless on Team 7 (not going to lie) but _I_ really wasn't doing any better. She had been a glue of some kind, keeping Naruto attached to her and keeping herself latched on to Sasuke. She had motivated Naruto into showing off and becoming better. She had been there to keep Sasuke's ego inflated.

Gah.

What had I done? I did my best to stop fights between the two. But hadn't the fighting brought those two closer together? So maybe I was stopping this team from bonding? No, that couldn't be right. All their fighting had ended up driving the two apart.

So maybe I was doing the right thing?

I looked back over to where they were (unsuccessfully) trying to master the tree walking exercise. I could just watch them while practicing some other exercise, or I could try to help them. We were a team after all... So if I helped them get better, our team would get better as a whole, which in itself was good reason enough.

Maybe I was just thinking too much, because my head was starting to spin and I could almost begin to feel a dull throb.

I got up again, dusting myself off before making a shadow clone.

"Okay, look here Ren," I said, frowning, looking at Ren #2, which was_ so_ weird... It was really taking "talking to oneself" to a whole new level.

"You're going to give Sasuke pointers on how to improve the tree walking exercise, got it? Don't take no for an answer, you know how he is. Oh and, if ever he tries to punch you or something, please try to avoid getting hit," I added, for good measure.

Who knew how the Uchiha would react to _help... _(though I had a hunch it was not going to be in a positive way).

"I'm going to help Naruto. You're allowed to use any means necessary to get Sasuke to listen to you. Though... don't do anything too rash," I said, on a second though.

I didn't trust myself. At all (which should be concerning actually, but oh well).

"Hai, hai!" the clone proclaimed, saluting me before sauntering off to 'Sasuke's' tree.

Walking over to Naruto, I tried to decide the best way to approach this entire situation.

In the past, he always ignored what I said, so why would this time be any different? I sigh, watching Naruto clamber up the tree again, his efforts proving to be futile... again.

"Hey Naruto," I said, smiling at him.

"Er, hi?" he said, panting a little, his blue eyes wary.

"Sooo, having any luck with the exercise?"

"Yeah! Yeah! I'm gonna get it down in no time!" he said, straightening up and grinning. "No problem!"

Yeah, don't think I didn't just see you glance at how Sasuke was doing.

But I didn't say anything, glancing over at.. _whyyy_ was my clone hitting Sasuke over on the head?! Gah, the boy was going to end up hating me.. or thinking I had violent tendencies. Which really couldn't be helped, I was a ninja after all.

"Oh, you can make clones too?" said Naruto, his eyebrows raising, looking from me to my clone and back again.

"Yep. Made one during that first fight remember?"

"Oh right, I forgot," he said, frowning again.

Checking up on his emotions, I detected some confusion and a bit of anger. Anger? Jeez, what had I done this time?

"Anyways, I've figured out how you can _totally_ beat Sasuke at this exercise," I said, trying my best to look convincing.

"What? Really? Tell me, tell me!"

"Oh alright, fine," I sighed dramatically. "Look, have you ever tried meditating?"

"Meditating?" he spluttered, looking at me like I had gone crazy. "No, not really."

"Yeah, and no offense, but it shows. Look, meditating helps you concentrate and clear your mind. Right now it's obvious all you want to do is beat Sasuke. If you let that cloud your mind, you wont be able to concentrate on what you're supposed to be doing."

"Er, okay?"

I tried another approach. "Stop thinking about Sasuke. You don't want people to think you _like_ him do you?"

"What?" he looked appalled. "Of course not! I'm not another one of his worshipers!"

"Then stop acting like a fangirl and staring at him all the time, people might start to wonder," I said, a bit amused at how red his face had gotten. He looked like an embarrassed school girl with a crush. "You need to start clearing your mind and relaxing. Go on, do it."

Naruto stared at me for a bit before closing his eyes. I checked his emotions to make sure he was at least trying to control his himself.

"Okay, okay, now take deep breaths. Great, focus your energy to your feet. No, no that's too much. Right, less. Less. Good. Keep it that way. Try running up the tree now."

He took a deep breath and ran up the tree. He went a bit further up than last time, but when he realized he was doing better, he had gotten excited and lost control of his chakra.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?" said Naruto instantly getting up after a hard fall.

"Yeah," I said, smiling as well. "You understand what you have to do now?"

"Yeah, stop thinking about Sasuke."

"Well yeah, but just concentrate the best you can on controlling your chakra okay?" I said, watching him nod frantically.

I spent the next couple of minutes watching him progress slowly while giving him pointers. Suddenly I felt a burst of images fill my mind, giving me that strange tingling sensation I always felt when one of my shadow clones dispersed.

"_What do you want?" Sasuke grunted, not even looking at me._

"_I'm here to help you."_

"_I don't _want your_ help."_

"_So you're fine if Naruto masters this exercise before you?"_

"_As if," Sasuke scoffed, but I could tell I had struck a nerve. Ha!_

"_You need my help."_

"I_ don't need _help_."_

"_Stop being so dense. You should be happy to have a nice, considerate teammate, willing to help others in need."_

"_Go. Away."_

"_Shut up and listen to me!" I said hitting him on the head._

_Sasuke looked a bit shocked before scowling even more._

"_What is _wrong_ with you?"_

"_I have no problem using more rudimentary methods to make you listen to me."_

"_Just shut up."_

"_Clear your mind, feel the chakra flow throughout your body and direct some to your feet," I said, ignoring him. "No you're doing it all wrong. I said clear your mind, don't you listen? And that's too much chakra."_

_Sasuke grunted but did minimize the amount of chakra he was focusing to his feet._

"_Yeah, that's still a bit too much."_

_Was he really that bad at chakra control? Ha, who would have thought?_

The rest of the memory flashes through my vision like a rapid blur, overwhelming me to the brink and then suddenly I'm back, breathing, staring at Naruto who's picking himself back up.

So that's how I spend the rest of my afternoon. Babysitting and mentoring my teammates, helping them improve without killing each other.

And (dare I say it) it's almost.. fun.

It's different, that I'm sure of. They're like two polar opposites with too much in common. I don't think that I'll ever say it enough, but they really do balance each other out. And they're amusing. Entertaining. Whatever.

After the fifth day of training this way, they're definitely more comfortable around me and I could feel their barriers lower and I'm just _this close_ to screaming victory. But I know I still have a long way to go before either of them fully trust me (or even like me? who knows...), but I'm trying- I'm really, really trying- and I think they're finally noticing.

And after spending this much time around them, I started to notice little things about them that I had overlooked (or that they hadn't showed me before).

Naruto has always been an open book about his feelings, and so it's easy for me to pick up on his frustration everytime he fell from the tree and his delight whenever he passed his previous kunai mark on the tree trunk. I had always figured it was his expression that gave him away, or his body posture, but I now I noticed that even if he stood perfectly still with a blank look to his face, his eyes would always give everything away.

Because his eyes were clear like mine, but they were so much more blue than gray, and they reflected everything he felt and betrayed everything he though. I guess it's true what they say 'the eyes are the mirror to one's soul'.

Sasuke's eyes in contrast, are dark bottomless pits of black, but strangely aren't that unpleasant. Even though you have the impression he's sniffing dung all the time because of his expression, he could be pleasant. Occasionally.

Because, surprisingly, I learned that Sasuke had a very dry sense of humor.

Yeah, you read right.

He had a sense of humor.

And it's not too bad either. I think my sarcastic quips are rubbing off on him, because I have no recollection of him ever being funny in the mangas.

They were advancing very quickly (more so than when I tried to get this exercise down- but give me some credit, I was what? Seven?). And even better, Tazuna's bridge was well on its way to being completed.

The only downside (if you could call it that), was Inari's brooding and snappy remarks. And Kakashi-sensei.

Quite frankly, that man was getting on my nerves. I knew he was lazy, I knew it from the start, but I hadn't expected him to be stupid.

Because seriously, he almost died in the last battle against Zabuza (who really was a speck of dirt compared to all the bad guys later on). Worse, he knew that the guy with the gigantic butcher knife would be back for us, and yet all he did was laze around and read smut. Shamelessly.

It was maddening.

And yet, I couldn't bring myself to confront him about it because, well, he was my sensei. And I had some respect (though it was dwindling day by day). I wondered how Sakura had coped. Gah.

Maybe Kakashi-sensei had a genius plan we didn't know of.

(I could only hope.)

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* * *

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It was early on during the second week that all hell broke loose (not really, but close enough).

It all started with an innocent question from Naruto (something along the lines of 'are we ever going to meet your father Inari?') and cue to the dramatic yelling and boy tantrums.

And as always, I was left picking up the pieces and trying to glue them back together (don't worry, I'm slowly getting used to being the mother hen/mentor/babysitter/advice-giver/'insert-blank-h ere').

"_Inari_," I sighed, making my way to his small figure. "I know Naruto can have a big mouth, but you should forgive him. He means well, after all."

And it's true. Because there was no possible way that Naruto would ever do something out of spite. He was far too good, far too 'noble'. He would have been a perfect Gryffindor.

I sat next to Inari and noticed he was looking at the moon's reflection pensively. It's a bit poetic, actually now that I think of it. Sitting on a (sort of) dock at night, with only the billion little stars and a big full moon to illuminate the waters. It might have even been romantic, except that, well, I was sitting next to _Inari. _Who was 6 or something.

"How can you stand having a teammate that's so _stupid_?" he said suddenly, looking angry and frustrated. "Always grinning and yelling like an idiot! He doesn't understand!"

"He understands," I replied softly, looking at the quiet ruffles of water.

He does, I'm sure.

"He doesn't have a family, you know. No mother, no father, no one back in our village wants him."

Inari seemed taken aback by this news, and looked at me wide-eyed.

"He's always smiling though. He's always trying his best and he's never giving up."

I turned my attention forward again, gazing aimlessly at the dark unknown in front of me.

"Sasuke and sensei lost their family as well. But they've never given up," I continued, my low voice still managing to ripple through the darkness, clear and distinct.

I looked around quickly, because I'm suddenly worried of being overheard. Maybe due to the fact that it wasn't exactly my story to tell, maybe because I would have a hard time explaining exactly how the hell I knew those things.

"What about you?" Inari's voice snaps me back to attention and I peer down at him quizzically.

"Me? I still have my family, if that's what you mean."

I try to ignore the look he gives me, but fail somewhat. His stare makes me feel like I'm an intruder, someone talking about something they know nothing about.

He's right in a way. I, unlike my teammates, have a family. People who love me and support me. I've never experienced the loss of someone dear to me. I've never even seen anyone die. It didn't make me better than them, just as it didn't make them better than me. Right? (Even though, now that I think about it, all of the great ninjas I know have lost someone dear to them).

I desperately tried to swerve the conversation away from me. Because this wasn't about me. It was about him, and learning to be brave and giving him hope (eh, I was never good with motivational speeches, but might as well give it a go).

"But what I'm trying to say is, Naruto knows how you feel. And yet he still wants to fight for what he believes in," I said, trying my best to sound collected and calm and sensei-like.

"What he believes in?" He repeated, looking confused and deep in thought.

"Hope," I said, smiling at him. "Because that's what keeps you going on. It's what keeps you together. It's what inspires you to do incredible things, great things. Hoping, believing, even when- _especially_ when- you feel like there's no more reason to, well that's what sets you apart. There will always be answers to your problems as long as you hope."

Satisfied with my mini speech (even though, looking back I realised I could have done a much better job) I stood up and looked over at him once more.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out now. I believe in you."

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Chouji

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"Ew, babies are _disgusting_," Ino whined, holding out Sorami's diaper like it was going to explode in her face.

"I don't know," mused Chouji, shrugging. "They're kind of cute."

He looked at Sorami's sleeping form more closely. They weren't _that_ bad. Babies had cute cheeks and wide eyes and they ate a lot too. They liked sleeping and playing and they weren't mean. Really, he didn't know what Ino was going on about.

"They're troublesome, that's what they are," grumbled Shikamaru, before turning his gaze away and going back to his own thoughts.

"I- I guess so," he said quietly.

Shikamaru thought everything and everyone was troublesome. Chouji was used to his remarks of course, but even though most of the time he was right, Chouji couldn't help but wonder if sometimes- just sometimes- he was wrong.

Yes, babies could be troublesome. You never knew exactly what they wanted, and you were forced to always share your food with them or they would start crying.

Ino started talking about how _her_ babies would never be troublesome.

Chouji doubted that- if Ino's babies were as loud-mouthed as she was, then they would be the most troublesome of all babies! He could only think of one person that could make more troublesome babies: Naruto.

But what if... What if Naruto and Ino got together and decided to make babies? Chouji blanched at the thought.

He imagined what kind of babies Naruto and Ino (the two most troublesome people he could think of) would come up with... Oh, the _horror_!

They would all be blond with blue eyes, wear orange jumpsuits, have an unhealthy obsession with Sasuke_-kun_, eat ramen, scream 'Believe it!' at the end of every sentence, be reaaaallyyy bossy,and have the life long ambi-

"Stop daydreaming the both of you!" said Ino, slapping the back of their heads. Hard. "Jeez, what did I ever do to get stuck with the lot of you?!"

"Why do you have to be so _troublesome_, woman?" said Shikamaru, rubbing his head. "Keep screaming like that and you'll wake up the baby."

Ino blanched, "Then what do you propose we do why we wait for the parents to get back?"

"Sleep," said Shikamaru at the same time he said, "Eat."

They exchanged a glance and small smile.

"You two are just impossible!" fumed Ino, her face contorting to an unpleasant frown.

Shikamaru went back to staring out of the window. Chouji chose to go sit next him.

"I miss Sasuke-kun so much!" sighed Ino while fixing her hair. "I hope he gets back soon!"

Chouji silently agreed.

Not because he particularly wanted to see the black haired boy again, but because he wanted Ren back.

It had been a little more than a week since he had last seen Ren-chan. He hoped she was doing okay. It left a weird, unsettling feeling in his stomach- he couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been able to see or talk to her when he wanted to. Being a genin had altered their relationship, but she always found time to come and visit them after training to go and eat something. Or just talk.

He really hoped she was doing okay. He missed talking to her. She was always so kind to him and knew exactly what to say to cheer him up when he was feeling down. Sometimes he thought she understood him better than himself.

Though it must be hard for Shikamaru as well, he thought, glancing over at him.

As usual, there was a slight frown etched onto his face. He must be worried about her too.

At times, Chouji felt a little jealous of his two best friends. They were the smartest people he knew and he found himself wanting to be a little more like them. It was a little eerie, though. Sometimes Chouji thought that they must share the same brain. There were times where they finished each others sentences or spoke for one another as if they could silently communicate. Sometimes he wanted to have that same bond with them. But he knew that jealousy was an ugly thing, so he did his best to squash the nagging sensations in his gut. Because above all, he loved his best friends, and nothing would ever, ever change that.

"I hope we learn super cool moves soon!" Ino continued, unaware that her public was only half listening. "Then Sasuke-kun will be so impressed, he'll throw himself at me! Ha! Just imagine billboard-brow's face!"

Chouji frowned a little. The day Sasuke Uchiha falls in love is the day he never eats chips again (which would never happen in a million, trillion years).

"How is Sakura doing?" He asked, suddenly remembering seeing her at a training ground with her team two days earlier.

"Bah, who cares? She sure looked smug after hearing Hasuo-kun would be on her team! Sure, I'll admit he's good looking, but no one compares to my boy Sasuke-kun!" Ino grinned, her blue eyes shining.

"Gah, stop talking about Sasuke! Jeez, all you girls are the same!" grumbled Shikamaru, moving away from Ino while glaring at her, all the while muttering 'troublesome' and something about 'obtrusive'.

Chouji shot Shikamaru a small smile.

Yeah, girls _were_ troublesome. But Ren had always been an exception to that rule.

He laid back, glancing at the ceiling letting his thoughts and dreams and hopes cloud his vision.

He missed his best friend.

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End file.
